Wagner group fighting in Donbass

"RT’s Murad Gazdiev was granted a rare opportunity to embed with the Wagner Group, a secretive Russian private military company, as it fights in Donbass.

The contractors, who call themselves ‘the Orchestra of Wagner’ or ‘the Musicians’, conceal their identities. The name is thought to have come from the call sign of the unit’s founder Dmitry Utkin, a veteran of two Chechen wars. Richard Wagner was a famous 19th century German composer but the name has also been used for characters in literature, computer games, comic books, and even by a motorcycle manufacturer. 

Before Murad joined them, the unit had recently pushed Ukrainian troops out of the village of Klinovoe in the Donetsk People’s Republic.

The Wagner fighters fired mortars as Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist Aidar Battalion and the ostensibly elite 10th Mountain Assault Brigade were trying to hold them off. “Artillery and mortar duels here are deafening and endless,” Gazdiev said while reporting.

During their offensive, the Wagner troops came under fire from cluster munitions and had to deal with tripwire anti-personnel mines left by the Ukrainians. The Kremlin has denied any ties between the Wagner Group and the Russian government." RT