Denies News Wagner Group Sends Pantsir Air Defense System To Hezbollah, Kremlin: The Group Doesn't Exist

JAKARTA - The Kremlin on Friday rejected a Wall Street Journal report that said US intelligence believed a group of Russian Wagner mercenaries planned to provide Hezbollah with an air defense system, saying such talks were baseless.

"We have said, de factoally, such a group (Wagner) does not exist," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the report.

"All of these thoughts are basically not based on anything and have no basis," Peskov continued.

"There is an emergency communication channel between the military (Russia and America), and if there are real concerns about something, they (Americans) can always convey it to our military," he said.

In its report, The Journal said Wagner plans to supply the Pantsir-S1 system, known by NATO as SA-22, which uses anti-aircraft missiles and air defense weapons to intercept aircraft.

Earlier, an unnamed United States official quoted by the Wall Street Journal said Washington had not confirmed if the air defense system had been delivered. However, US officials monitored discussions involving Wagner and Hezbollah.

It said the Pantsir system would be given to Hezbollah through Syria, where Russia supports President Bashar al-Assad by entering civil war there in 2015.

It is known that President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin have repeatedly said there is no legal basis for Wagner under a law prohibiting groups of mercenaries from being in Russia.

Wagner's future is unclear since the June uprising, as well as Prigozhin's death in an unexplained plane crash in August.

Lebanese-based Hezbollah has been involved in a shootout with Israeli troops across the border, since its ally the Palestinian militant group Hamas clashed with Israel in Gaza on October 7.