War in Ukraine: Gazprom creates its own militias to fight on the front lines

The Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom he is also involved in the Ukrainian front. In February, the company obtained authorization to operate create your own private militia and began to recruit volunteers from among its employees to fight in Ukraine. The Financial Times revealed it on Friday.

The British newspaper looked into two specific battalions, “Potok” and “Fakel”, two units that add to the numerous private militias operating on the ground, one of them the famous Wagner mercenary group, at the hands of Yevgeny Prigozhin.

According to two Gazprom employees interviewed by the Financial Times, targeted recruitment has already begun security guards and not to corporate engineers. Two people had to volunteer to go into combat, says one of the employees.

Equipment and salary increase

Gazprom I would provide them with equipment and raise their salary, as he was told. For these employees, volunteering through their company means they can keep their jobs and get better income than a conscript in the Russian army.

But in the field, these militias are not supported by all in Russia. In a 26-minute video posted on the Telegram channel in April, group leader Wagner Prigozhin accused both Potok and Fakel. to compete with his paramilitary unit and actually wanting to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia.

According to the Ukrainian authorities, who control these militias, their effectiveness on the front it is limited. Instead, they are more interested in positioning themselves ahead of time the chessboard of future power games.

Bombardment of Belgorod

While discord reigns in the Russian ranks, the Ukrainians raid Russian soil increase.

The Belgorod region, in southwestern Russia, has been the target of raids and bombings for several days. an unprecedented intensity since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022.

The regional governor said on Friday that Ukrainian forces fired shells that hit a road near the town of Shebekino, about 10 kilometers from Ukraine.

“Shrapnel hit passing vehicles. Two women who were in one of them died due to his injuries,” Viacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.

Two other people were injured in a second vehicle and are in serious condition, he added.

Other cities in the region have also been subjected to shelling, although this has only caused material damage, the governor explained.

The bombings come as Kiev says it has staged a major counter-offensive to recover territories it captured from Moscow, including the Crimea peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.

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Friday’s bombings come a day after the Russian military said it had thwarted an attempted Ukrainian “invasion” of Belgorod with its artillery and air force.

A week ago, an incursion by armed men in that area caused astonishment in the country. The attacks were claimed by groups of pro-Kyiv Russian volunteers. However, the Ukrainian authorities They denied any involvement.

A part of the inhabitants of Shebekino decided to run away before the attacks intensified.

According to the governor, more than 2,500 people – of the 40,000 the city had before the conflict – have been hosted in temporary reception centers in the region.

Early in the morning, Russian air defense also shot down several drones near Kursk, another city located near the border, according to the governor of the region, who asked residents to “remain calm”.

New bombing against kyiv

In Ukraine, Kiev suffered a new wave of bombing with drones and explosive missiles at dawn, said the mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko.

The bombings, which are taking place for the sixth consecutive day, have left no victims. “The terror of Kiev with airstrikes continues,” the head of the local military administration, Sergei Popko, deplored in Telegram.

“Tonight, the enemy used 15 Iranian Shahed cruise missiles and 18 attack drones for shelling. All (…) were destroyed by our defenders,” the Ukrainian military celebrated on Facebook.

“Over the past day, the enemy has fired 12 volleys of missiles using ten Iskander-type ballistic and cruise missiles against kyiv (shot down by our defenders) and two S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles against Kharkiv”, Ukraine’s second city in the east, he specified.

Since the beginning of May, Russia has increased its drone and missile strikes against the Ukrainian capital. Attacks usually occur at night, a tactic he seeks terrorize the populationaccording to the Kiev complaint.

At least three people, including a child, were killed in one of these attacks on Thursday.

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