The Wagner private military company (PMC) mercenary, killed by Libyan government forces earlier in May, had the call sign Khunguz and was a native of Buryatia or Khakassia. Writes about this “Novaya Gazeta”.
According to her, video recordings and photographs of a 25-30-year-old Slavic man lying on the ground appeared in Arab social networks last week. He was wearing military camouflage. The file signature stated that the victim was “a Wagner mercenary who fought for the warlord Haftar.” The photograph also shows a backpack on which the word “HUNGUZ” is written in Cyrillic.
Novaya Gazeta interviewed former and current fighters of Russian PMCs, but they could not identify the victim. At the same time, one of the interlocutors of the publication noted that he had heard about a fighter with the call sign “Hunguz”. “The guy enlisted in a PMC either from Buryatia or from Khakassia,” he said.
The publication indicates that members of the Chinese gangs operating in Manchuria were called Hunguz, and in some regions they still remember their raids during the Civil War. “And a native of those places, having recruited into a PMC, could well have taken such a call sign,” the newspaper noted.
Earlier on May 25, Libya's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Taher al-Sonni showed a video of the evacuation of foreign mercenaries by air from an airfield near the city of Beni Walid, southeast of Tripoli. According to the diplomat, the captured mercenaries fought on the side of the Libyan National Army (LNA) of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
The command of the army of the government of national accord (PNS) of Libya, opposing the LNA, previously announced the evacuation of 1.6 thousand fighters from Wagner PMC from Libya. According to the UN, from 800 to 1.2 thousand PMC employees are fighting for Haftar's army.
