Russian Defence Ministry welcomes Andrei Troshev as Putin meets his 'dream Wagner boss'

Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down for a meeting with Andrei Troshev, who is believed to be his "preferred candidate" to succeed late Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in leading the private mercenary group. On the night of Thursday, he met Troshev and Deputy Defence Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. 

Troshev, who is Wagner's founding member and Executive Director, met the president merely hours before a barrage of Ukrainian drone attacks rained down on Russia's border areas. As per the Russian defence ministry, the strikes hit a power substation and cut power supplies.

While details of the meeting remain undisclosed, it is said to have represented the Kremlin's show of force and how it has managed to keep Wagner intact despite the botched mutiny of June and the mysterious death of Prigozhin in a plane crash in August. 

Days after Wagner fighters marched towards Moscow in a bid to topple the Russian military leadership, Putin vouched for Troshev to lead the group and replace Prigozhin, who once was his ally. “You yourself have been fighting in such a unit for more than a year," Putin said, according to local newspaper Kommersant. 

"You know what it is, how it is done, you know about the issues that need to be resolved in advance so that the combat work goes in the best and most successful way," he added. Recently, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the RIA news agency that Troshev now "works in the defence ministry.” 

Wagner fighters reappear in Ukraine's Bakhmut 

Meanwhile, hundreds of Wagner troops made their way back to Ukraine's eastern city of Bakhmut this week. Speaking to CNN on Wednesday, Serhii Cherevatyi, the Deputy Commander of Communications for Ukrainian troops in the East, said that the fighters were working individually under the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“As of now, there are several hundred of them in our direction, on the Eastern Front, in different areas,” he told the outlet. Cherevatyi claimed that the move displays how Russian forces are "short of everyone there now, so any man is good for them.”

On the other hand, Oleksandr Tarnavsky, the Ukrainian general leading the southern counteroffensive, said that Wagner servicemen often appear “here and there” on the frontlines. “The fact is that their badges appear here and there – that’s been constant,” he added.