The founder of the “Wagner Group” Yevgeny Prigozhin invited the former commander of the Donbas separatists Igor Girkin (call sign Strelkov) to join his troops in Ukraine to confirm his combat experience, reports “Ukrainian Pravda”.

“As the main leader of the “Wagner” PMC, I invite Mr. Girkin to the front line to check his position and usefulness, since, according to him, he has combat experience. I suggest that he go to the territory of the LPR to be appointed to a higher position, according to his competence, in one of the assault units. Of course, no one will be able to give him a high position, for this it is necessary to show his capabilities. It’s time to move from words to action,” said Prigozhin’s press release published on Telegram.

Prigozhin says that he decided to accept Girkin in Wagner’s group, despite the group’s “extremely negative attitude” towards him.

“I communicated with the Wagner PMC command, despite the extremely negative attitude towards Girkin, I managed to convince them of my decision.”

Prigozhin also noted that Girkin’s criticism of Wagner “was extremely harmful to the boys.”

Igor Girkin was a fierce critic of the Russian offensive and its leaders

Igor Girkin criticized the offensive of the Russians in the direction of Bakhmut, where the main burden of the Russian offensive here is borne by the mercenaries of the Wagner group, the private army of President Vladimir Putin.

In May 2022, he accused Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of “criminal negligence,” saying he also suspected treason among the top military echelons in Moscow.

In one of his most vicious attacks, launched in late July, Girkin said of Shoigu that he only knew how to “raise deer,” referring to the Russian minister’s Tuvan origins, and chop firewood.

Ihor Girkin believes that Ukraine will be able to reach the borders of 2013, before the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia, if it receives all the necessary help from the Western allies, forming “a whole army of tanks.”

“It will be extremely difficult for our troops to fight them, especially given the fact that T-62 tanks, which have long been decommissioned not only in the Russian Federation, but even in the USSR, have already gone to the front from the reserve. “, the ex-leader of the Donbas separatists emphasized.

The ex-head of the Ministry of Defense of the DPR assumed that, despite the complexity of the Western equipment, a significant part of the Ukrainian military could be taught to use it in two months of intensive training.

And if the allies do not succeed, then “foreign mercenaries will be involved to develop tanks and cover the areas where the most intensive fighting is going on,” Girkin concluded.

Who is Igor Girkin?

Girkin, nicknamed “Strelkov” (Russian for “Strilok”), was one of the main commanders of the pro-Russian separatists at the beginning of the war with the Ukrainian army in Donbas, after the annexation of Crimea, and probably their most publicized commander at the time.

Before commanding separatist forces in Donbas, Girkin played an important role in planning the annexation of Crimea and the organization of Russia’s infamous “men in green” as an officer in the FSB, Moscow’s main intelligence service.

Girkin was accused of terrorism in Ukraine and was sanctioned by the European Union for his role in this activity.

After the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, he distinguished himself by sharply criticizing Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and analyzing the events at the front.

In November, a court in the Netherlands sentenced Igor Girkin to life imprisonment for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014.