- Russia's MOD said Tuesday it signed contracts with 4 detachments and 3 brigades of volunteers.
- It's likely part of efforts to centralize control of irregular personnel fighting in Ukraine, experts said.
Russia's Ministry of Defense announced that it is bringing volunteer groups fighting in Ukraine under its control, but one notable fighting force, the pro-Kremlin Wagner mercenary group, said it will not cooperate.
The MOD said on Tuesday that it has signed contracts with three brigades and four separate detachments from the Volunteer Assault Corps, bringing the groups under its direct control.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseev said he was confident that all formations in the corps would sign their contracts, according to the MOD's statement.
It came after the MOD announced last week that Russian "volunteer" groups fighting in Ukraine would be required to sign contracts with the country's defense ministry.
The move was widely seen as an effort to bring the Wagner Group under official military control, the BBC reported.
Wagner group head Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Sunday that he received an order from Russia's defense ministry to bring his group under its command.
Prigozhin said on Telegram that the Wagner Group would not sign any contracts with Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu, and criticized the structure of the Russian military.
Prigozhin said Wagner answers to General Sergey Surovikin, the former commander of Russia's forces in Ukraine, who was instructed in May to work with the group.
Prigozhin also said that the Russian MOD was trying to harm the Wagner Group, and said that the group is receiving 2.5 times more recruits after the recent "provocative announcements about the need to terminate the existence of Wagner private military company," according to the translation by Washington DC-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War.
The ISW said that the Russian ministry's efforts are likely intended to centralize control of Russian irregular personnel and supplies in response to Ukraine's counteroffensive, as well as to "restrict Prigozhin's independence."
The Wagner group — which sent tens of thousands of mercenary fighters and convicts to fight in Ukraine — and Russia's defense ministry have been involved in an escalating public feud.
This has included Prigozhin accusing Russian military leadership of cutting off ammunition to his group in an "attempt to destroy" it, and threatening to withdraw from the major battle of Bakhmut, where Wagner's troops had been leading the push against Ukraine's forces.
Leaked US military intelligence said Prigozhin offered in late January to give Ukraine the locations of Russian troops elsewhere in the country in exchange for it leaving Bakhmut.
A former Kremlin official told The Washington Post in comments published on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin was reluctant to punish Prigozhin as he can't afford to lose the support of hardline nationalists.
This latest move by the defense ministry could be a way to avoid that, but it could also backfire.