The shadowy Wagner Group, infamous for its brutal tactics in Ukraine, is looking to fight gangs in Haiti just off the US mainland.
Associates of the group planned to seek out government contracts on the impoverished island just 800 miles from Florida, according to leaked Defense Department documents.
The documents also detail friction between Wagner and the Russian MoD. The group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of Putin, has been vocal in his criticism of the Russian military.
In late February, the documents, citing reporting by law enforcement, say that Wagner representatives planned to “discreetly travel to Haiti to assess the potential for contracts with the Haitian government to fight against local gangs”.
Such a move would likely be viewed in Washington as a huge escalation by the Kremlin due to Haiti’s proximity to the US.
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Wagner has operations around the world and has been particularly active in Africa, including in Mali and the Central African Republic.
The group has also been involved in the bloody battle taking place in the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and has suffered tremendous casualties after recruiting thousands of Russian convicts to its ranks last year.
Haiti has been plagued by violence in recent years, with heavily armed gangs vying for control over areas in the nation’s capital Port-au-Prince.
Other classified documents released show Russian defence officials considering how to respond to claims by Yevgeny Prigozhin that they were starving Wagner of supplies and ammunition.
Prigozhin previously branded Russian MoD officials as treasonous, laying bare the rift forming within the Russian defence apparatus. In the documents, Russian military officials reportedly considered doubling Wagner’s allotment of ammunition while releasing a public statement on the issue.
Express.co.uk has not seen the documents in question and the Pentagon has refused to comment on the “validity” of the information contained in them.
Although some documents appeared to be doctored, US officials have confirmed that many appear to be genuine classified documents.
The documents were allegedly leaked by 21-year-old Air National Guardsman Jack Texeira. The files were shared on a chat server dedicated to video games and offensive memes and remained online for months before becoming widely shared.
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