Former Russian space boss leads ‘Tsar Wolves’
The former head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, has revealed he is now leading a volunteer unit dubbed ‘Tsar Wolves’ in Donbass.
The group operates in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, which were recently incorporated into Russia, providing technical support to combat troops, Rogozin told RIA Novosti on Friday.
“We have created an inspection group ‘Tsar Wolves’, which consists of experienced military advisers and experts with rich combat experience. Its main task is military-technical support for the units of the DPR and LPR participating in hostilities as part of the special military operation,” Rogozin told RIA Novosti, adding that the group operates as a “volunteer unit.”
The group’s name is a nod to Russian volunteer units that took part in a series of conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Rogozin explained. Before becoming a top government official, Rogozin himself volunteered in several conflicts following the collapse of the Soviet Union, including the wars in Yugoslavia and the hostilities between Moldova and its breakaway region of Transnistria.
The ‘Tsar Wolves’ group has already successfully tested a new “smart” targeting system for mortars, Rogozin revealed on social media on Thursday. The targeting system is set to “show itself” across the whole frontline “soon,” he said.
The ex-space boss, who led Roscosmos from 2018 before stepping down last summer, also posted a picture of himself together with the commander of the ‘Somali’ battalion, a volunteer unit active in the DPR since 2014. Rogozin is seen in full military garb, including body armor and a carrier vest, with a patch reading ‘Sarmat’, in an apparent nod to Russia’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile. He had earlier been pictured in Donbass sporting another patch reading ‘Cosmos,’ evidently a reference to his tenure as the country’s space boss.
