 Vargna fighters returned to front in Ukraine. Former Vargna group fighters have returned to the battlefield near Bakhmut, CNN reported, citing commanders in Kiev. The Russian private military company withdrew from the front in May, later staging a short lived mutiny. Sergei Cherovati, deputy commander of communications for Ukraine's eastern forces, told the US network that former Vargna troops are now working for the Russian defence ministry or its affiliated structures and have been dispersed among various units on the front line. As of now, there are several hundred of them in our direction, on the eastern front, in different areas, Cherovati claimed. A Ukrainian drone operator near Bakhmut also told CNN that Vargna is here, adding that the fighters swiftly changed their commanders and returned here. The Vargna group was instrumental in taking control of Bakhmut, a key Donbas stronghold which was captured by Russian troops in late May after months of bitter fighting. Several days later, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the now deceased chief of the group, announced a withdrawal from the front line, stating that positions previously occupied by Vargna troops had been handed. Prigozhin died along with several high-ranking Vargna operatives in a plane crash in Russia's Tver region in August. An investigation into the incident is ongoing and will include the possibility that the crash was a premeditated crime, according to Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.