The White Power Mercenaries Fighting For The Lost Cause Around the World
Russian mercenaries are the all-too-real bogeymen of the war in Ukraine. Most belong to the company known colloquially as Wagner, a quasi-corporate paramilitary group connected to the Kremlin that serves as a violent tool of Putin’s foreign policy around the world. Depending on the reports you believe, Wagner mercenaries were responsible for the execution of civilians in Bucha, have deployed tens of thousands of infantry to support the eastern offensive, or have already lost 3,000 fighters in combat. Deliberate disinformation surrounds their operations, and initial reports are just that, but Wagner mercenaries often leave evidence behind, and so there are some things we can be sure of. When police from Kyiv recently posted photos on Facebook of hand grenades used as booby-traps, I had a flash of recognition, because in this case the fighters used a tactic we have seen before.
In May 2020, in western Libya, as the front lines surrounding Tripoli broke and the siege of the capital was suddenly lifted, Wagner mercenaries beat a hasty retreat across the desert. The Russians had brought in artillery and snipers to support the Libyan National Army’s final assault on the city, but when the tide turned they fled east.
Before they retreated from Tripoli, the mercenaries laid landmines and booby-traps, including hand-grenades with triplines, in civilian homes in the suburb of Ain Zara. Officials estimate these mines have killed over 50 civilians who tried to move back into their neighborhoods, not realizing they were laced with triplines. Last October, the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission in Libya directly implicated Wagner in these deaths. Landmines are banned weapons under international convention, and directly targeting civilians is a war crime.
But the Wagner operatives left more than boobytraps. They also spray-painted swastikas and SS lightning bolts as graffiti wherever they went. Nazi symbols are popular among the mercenaries; in Ukraine in April, a leader of Task Force Rusich, a Wagner subsidiary, was videotaped wearing the Valknot and Tatenkoph of the 3rd SS Panzer Division. Wagner itself is named after the notoriously antisemitic German composer, whose operas famously made Hitler weep. According to the group’s origin story, a former Spetsnaz (Soviet special forces) soldier named Dmitry Utkin used “Wagner” as his callsign while fighting in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Utkin, who many consider Wagner’s operational commander, has tattoos of Nazi “SS” epaulets along his collar bones. Many founding members of Wagner also belong to the ultra-nationalist and white supremacist group known as the Russian Imperial Movement, which the U.S. State Department has declared a terrorist organization.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-white-power-mercenaries-fighting-for-the-lost-cause-around-the-world/ar-AAXYm80
