The Wagner team is notorious, dangerous and scared. It also does not exist. Russia has been accused of using private military contractors in conflicts that the Kremlin has had interests around the world for years. It has set up a network of hardliners who have fought across Africa and the Middle East and are currently on the ground in Ukraine. But it does not legally exist as a single entity and analysts are still debating how to define it and how it works. It is clear that private soldiers loyal to the Kremlin – and, unlike other rental weapons, no one else – have carried out operations that are beneficial to the Russian government. And yet private military companies remain outlawed in Russia, and the Kremlin denies any involvement. So what exactly is the Wagner Group, how was it founded and what does it do in Ukraine?
What is the Wagner Group?
Defining the Wagner Group is not easy, a task that becomes more difficult than the legal gray area in which it operates. Russian law prevents him from officially registering in the country, and while Vladimir Putin has publicly acknowledged his existence once in 2018, his status is darker than other similar groups, including those registered in the United Kingdom. It does not seem to exist formally as a single entity and instead looks more like a network of different, overlapping groups operating in different parts of the world. A soldier associated with the group was spotted wearing a patch that carried the group insignia to Donetsk this week ??? #Syria #PMCs #WagnerGroup #Prigozhin #EuroPolis #Timchenko #Stroytransgaz #nationalsecurity #strategy RFE / RL, Scowcroft Center, Eurasia Center and 7 more *** TWITTER PICTURE *** ”/> Soldiers allegedly linked to the group with Assad forces in Syria (Image: Twitter) It consists of private military contractors. Like other similar groups based around the world, it consists mainly of ex-soldiers and security personnel who go to war zones for profit. There is nothing new about firearms selling their services to the highest bidder – but Wagner Group soldiers are different. The force is ideologically committed to Vladimir Putin and Russia, acting essentially as an extension of the military, but is officially kept within breathing distance. The Russian government has consistently denied any connection to the group, but Western governments say it is largely integrated with the state. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a US-based foreign policy think tank, “its operations are deeply intertwined with the Russian military and the intelligence community.” Vladimir Putin is at the heart of Russia’s vast military and intelligence network, but it is not entirely clear where the Wagner team fits in. (Image: AP) Ukrainian intelligence had previously said he had received spy calls revealing that Wagner’s leaders were talking directly to Russian military intelligence commanders, indicating a high level of coordination. Its troops have been active in Ukraine since 2014 and have also fought in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic and Mali, where it is accused of slaughtering 300 people in a single village just last month. Analysts say the use of private contractors allows the Kremlin to engage in controversial or illegal businesses while maintaining a degree of denial. The use of private military groups also allows the Kremlin to keep costs low and avoid official military losses that it will one day have to inform the public about.
Who runs and finances the Wagner Group?
Information available to the public on how the Wagner Group operates is rare. Kimberly Marten, a leading expert in organization at Columbia University, has traced its roots to 2005 and found its roots in older private military groups. It is widely believed that Russian veteran Dmitry Utkin has been involved since the early days and one theory behind Wagner’s name is that he comes from his own calling badge. There are a few pictures of Utkin, but one seems to show that he has Nazi tattoos, which will give credibility to the connection between his chosen calling badge and the name of the group (Wagner is Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer). An image supposedly showing a neo-Nazi tattoo of Dmitry Utkin (Image: Wikipedia) He is a career soldier who fought in Chechnya before joining Russia’s overseas military intelligence service and in 2016 was photographed next to Vladimir Putin as he was awarded a prestigious military award. The group’s foundations are in dispute, but even if Utkin is indeed the man who started it all, CSIS says that “it cannot be verified whether Utkin started the Wagner Group or was just a frontman for someone else.” Bellingcat, an investigative journalism firm that has uncovered secrets that go to the heart of Putin’s Russia, discovered evidence last year that Utkin was merely the face of the business (including a job application he sent just months before the group began fighting in Ukraine). Yevgeny Prigozhin gives a tour of Vladimir Putin in the building of his catering company (Image: Government of the Russian Federation) Since the team does not appear to exist as a single entity, it is possible that there are several managers operating different units with different levels of communication between them. Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman nicknamed “Putin’s chef” because of his supply contracts with the Kremlin, is believed to be behind the group’s funding. Imprisoned in a Soviet prison as a young man for theft, he would build a hot dog counter that became a restaurant business and eventually a catering giant. MORE: In Tsar Putin’s court: The Kremlin’s key figures behind the Ukraine war His company has secured billions of pounds worth of government contracts to feed students and soldiers, and analysts believe the payments are being used to channel Kremlin money into private forces. Mr Prigozhin has always denied any involvement with the Wagner Group. He is wanted by the FBI for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential election and is accused of links to Russia-based intelligence companies, which he also denies.
What is he doing in Ukraine?
The Ukrainian government says Wagner Group executives have been in the country since 2014 and have seen an increase since the most recent invasion. He says it has been renamed Liga in recent months and cites it as such in statements, although the old name continues to be used by Western governments. The BBC said it had seen evidence of a mercenary invitation to take part in the operation in Ukraine, which it described as a “picnic” and specifically extended the call to arms to fighters who had been expelled from other units due to debts or criminal records. Officials in Kyiv say hundreds of his soldiers have been sent to lie down low in the capital before the invasion begins and are awaiting instructions for the assassination of Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian president is surrounded by armed guards at any moment after the revelation of plans connected with the Wagner group to assassinate him (Image: AFP) The Ukrainian president is believed to have survived several attempts on his life, in part thanks to unhappy Russian intelligence sources who leaked information about Ukraine, officials said. It cannot be ascertained whether Wagner’s troops were actually used to try to assassinate the president, but the theoretical ability to put an operational distance between the Kremlin and the man holding the gun is precisely why private military contractors could be useful to Vladimir Putin. This week, an article in the German newspaper Der Spiegel further reinforced allegations that the group was operating in Kyiv, when it reported that German secret services had intercepted phone calls detailing the actions of its soldier. In it, men are heard talking about the killing of civilians in Bucha, a suburb of the capital where innocent people were found executed with their hands tied behind their backs. One is said to have spoken about how he and others shot and killed a civilian on a bicycle, and another says: “Ask the soldiers first and then shoot them.” Wagner Soldiers Linked to Civilian Killing in Bucha (Image: Anadolu) In March, the UK Department of Defense said Wagner troops were operating in eastern Ukraine and reiterated that assessment this week. Prior to the invasion, the group was accused of carrying out false flag attacks in Donbass to create a pretext for war. On March 20, the Institute for War Studies said the Wagner Group “is likely to facilitate the development of Libyan fighters in Ukraine.” MORE: What does Putin want? The story behind the Russia-Ukraine conflict The group was active in the Libyan civil war alongside Khalifa Haftar, a rogue general who has attacked the UN-recognized government in Tripoli. There have been no verified observations by Libyan forces on the ground in Ukraine, but the organization of ad hoc forces from battle zones where the group is already active could be a key task as the conflict escalates and regular troops are depleted. Contact our news team by emailing us at [email protected] For more stories like this, check out our news page.
