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About 80 Russian soldiers in the occupied city of Lysychansk, Luhansk Oblast, as well as about 30 mercenaries of the Wagner Group near the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast deserted from the battlefield, the General Staff reported on May 28.
Russian soldiers from the Storm-Z unit “voluntarily left their combat positions” in Lysychansk, which became the final Ukrainian holdout in Luhansk Oblast in July last year. the report reads.
On May 25, another 20 Russian soldiers, who were all former prisoners called to serve the army in exchange for early release, also deserted from the city of Svatove in Luhansk Oblast.
According to the General Staff report, they stole a Russian-produced Kamaz heavy truck and “left in an unknown direction.”
Wagner a ‘shadow of what it once was’: Russia security expert on the rage of mercenary boss Prigozhin
After seeming to have calmed down over early spring, the internal conflict between Wagner mercenary group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Russian Defense Ministry has escalated dramatically. In the early morning of May 5, Prigozhin recorded a video in front of what he claimed to be the bodies of doz…
Francis Farrell
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