Russia uses aircraft that are part of its military aviation fleet to transport Wagner PMC forces to other countries. Thus, this fact testifies to full-blown support on the part government institutions for Wagner’s operations on foreign soil.
During the latest meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the latter claimed his government had nothing to do with the deployment of Wagner units in Mali. According to Putin, the authorities in Mali have invited the said PMC at a government level.
However, after analyzing the routes for these units’ transfer, as well as the aircraft involved in logistics, allows assuming that it was Russia that has ensured at the highest government level the Wagner PMC’s deployment in Mali.
A thorough check of flight routes and photos of the aircraft (with tail numbers visible) hauling Wagner PMC units to Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Venezuela, and Mali indicate that the same planes are involved in such air transportation missions. Most of them are part of the 223rd Aviation Detachment of the Russian Ministry of Defense, based at the Chkalovsky military airfield.
On September 16, 2015, the detachment was transformed into a Federal state institution fed from the budget. Flight training routine is run in line with the schedule of the 8th Special Purpose Air Detachment, in accordance with the Russian Air Force’s regulations. Public procurement data shows that the passenger plane crews that are part of the detachment are trained at the Vnukovo airport in Moscow.
The “flag” of the 223rd Flight Detachment is almost always used for international hauling operations in the interests of Russia’s Air Force. In accordance with the presidential order of January 15, 1993 No. 37-rp 223, the Detachment performs tasks on instructions of president, government, and defense ministry.
Thus, Wagner PMC forces are brought in on the planes operated by state-owned enterprise subordinate to the Ministry of Defense. However, it’s not from the nation’s defense budget that the company is paid for logistical services, but from financial institutions affiliated to one of the Kremlin oligarchs, Yevgeny Prigozhin (M-Inest, M-Finance, and Broker Expert). The same financial organizations procure military hardware and weapons from the Ministry of Defense after the latter gets rid of them off as surplus assets or those set to be written off. After this, they are forwarded to the Wagner PMC which transfers these arms to their operation areas.
It is indicative that one of the planes that was involved in hauling Wagner mercenaries also took part in February 2022 in bringing Russian military personnel to Minsk for the joint Russia-Belarus exercise. At the same time, it remains unclear, what units exactly the plane carried on board. The situation is not so typical for Russian Air Force operations, since it’s Il-76 military cargo aircraft that are traditionally used in the exercises. This leads to an assumption that, under the pretext of exercises, Russia could have transferred to Belarus some Wagner PMC mercenaries, including possibly to take part in the acts of provocation on the border with Ukraine, of which the U.S. intelligence community had openly warned earlier.
At least two aircraft, tail numbers RA-85042 and RA-85041, raise questions about the legal side of these logistics operations. According to the official data available on these planes, both aircraft with such tail numbers were decommissioned in 1997 and then scrapped. However, these precise tail numbers were recorded as Wagner PMC’s men were transported to their relevant destinations.
There is a hypothesis that the use of “ghost aircraft” is required to evade sanctions and risks of these planes aircraft being seized by foreign authorities as violators of the arms embargo applied to a number of countries. This kind of approach suggests that, taking into account possible risks related to these hauling services, the Russian defense ministry employed for the 223rd Aviation Detachment a number of written-off aircraft beyond service life, which incurred minimal costs. The technical condition of some of these aircraft, the ones that are not involved in transporting Russian government officials, might explain those aviation incidents. Among them was the crash of Flight RA-85572 during take-off from Sochi, where member of the defense ministry’s world-famous Alexandrov Choir died.
The RA-85155 and RA-85019 belong to the Russia Special Flight Squadron, which carries government officials and other VIPs with the intelligence community or defense bosses. The Squadron, subordinate to the Presidential Administration, is based at Vnukovo airport, which in turn renders certain services to Detachment 223. According to a presidential decree, special-purpose aircraft scramble to transport Russian public servants, certain officials with the Federal government, and other persons, with the president’s written consent.
The RA-82038 is most likely operated by the 224th Flight Detachment, which provides air transportation services to government agencies, also performing chartered commercial cargo flights in Russia and beyond. Detachment 224 was set up based on the 12th Military Cargo Aviation Detachment with the Russian Air Force. The carrier operates aircraft owned by the Russian Air Force. Flights are operated in line with the training plan and tasks performed by the Air Force are carried out within the organizational structure of the Air Base 6955. According to the airline’s charter, its aircraft are allowed to run cargo and paratroopers’ aerial landing missions, which directly implies that the Detachment performs tasks including those set by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Thus, all the aircraft involved in hauling Wagner PMC forces to the areas of their operational deployment belong to Russian government agencies and are operated in the interests of Russia’s government or defense ministry in particular. This fact provides direct evidence that Wagner PMC’s activities are coordinated and carried out under the immediate supervision and support of the Russian Federation
