Putin Meets Ex-Wagner Commander Andrei Troshev

The Facts

• Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin was this week pictured in a meeting with Andrei Troshev, formerly a senior commander of the Wagner mercenary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin until his death in a plane crash earlier this year.

• According to a Kremlin statement on the meeting released on Friday, Putin was quoted as telling Troshev: "At the last meeting we talked about you overseeing the formation of volunteer units that can carry out various tasks, first and foremost of course in the zone of the special military operation," — Russia's preferred way of referring to its war in Ukraine.

• "You yourself fought in such a unit for more than a year," Putin added. "You know what it is, how it’s done, you know about the issues that need to be resolved in advance so that combat work goes on in the best and most successful way."