Media: Wagner Group forming ‘military police’ on Ukraine’s occupied territories

The new formation will particularly keep an eye on Russian Defence Ministry soldiers

The Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary military company, has begun forming a “military police” unit which will be working on the occupied territories of Ukraine, Verstka reports after contacting one of the recruiters.

The private military company published an ad on VK, a Russian social media platform, looking for former law enforcement officers to hire.

According to Verstka, the “military police” will make sure that everyone abides by the company’s rules. “They will be watching that there are no thieves or marauders, there are no brawls, excessive drinking, and so on. Their responsibilities will also include the timely detection of sabotage and reconnaissance groups and working with them: interrogation, investigation, and other operational duties out there,” recruiter Denis said.

At the same time, the new unit will also be keeping an eye on Russia’s regular army soldiers.

“Just do your job as you should, there’ll be no questions at all, are you joking? It’s a very normal occurrence to catch a Russian Defence Ministry soldier. There’s a lot of scum there, they are drinking like swines. We have the whole package of duties,” the Wagner Group told Verstka.

The company also said that a “military police” employee will get 240,000 rubles (€2,700) a month, while there will also be “very good” bonuses.

Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu earlier told a Russian Security Council meeting that 1,336 people on average join the Russian army as contract soldiers per day. Shoigu claims that the Russian army “receives a new regiment” every day. He noted that 114,000 people had signed contracts with the Defence Ministry as of today.

The Russian ministry recently issued a new order to make signing contracts with the agency mandatory. According to the instruction, all “volunteer formations” have to enter into a legally-binding relationship with the ministry by 1 July.