![]() ![]() The same year, senior Moran Security Group managers were involved in setting up the Hong Kong-based Slavonic Corps, which headhunted contractors to "protect oil fields and pipelines" in Syria during its civil war. After leaving the military, he began working in 2013 for the Moran Security Group, a private company founded by Russian military veterans, which was involved in security and training missions worldwide, and specializes in security against piracy. Until 2008 or 2013, Utkin served as lieutenant colonel and brigade commander of a unit of special forces of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), the 700th Independent Spetsnaz Detachment of the 2nd Independent Brigade. ![]() Dmitriy Valeryevich Utkin, a veteran of the First and Second Chechen Wars, reportedly founded the group. The group was also active in 2014, fighting with Russia-backed separatists in the Luhansk region of Ukraine. The Wagner Group first appeared in Ukraine in 2014, where it participated in the annexation of Crimea. Īfter years of denying links to the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close links to Putin, admitted in September 2022 that he "founded" the paramilitary group. Others put the number of recruited prisoners at more than 20,000, with the overall number of PMCs present in Ukraine estimated at 20,000. In December 2022, Pentagon's John Kirby claimed Wagner group has 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts. It has played a significant role in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, where, among other activities, it has been reportedly deployed to assassinate Ukrainian leaders, and has widely recruited prisoners and convicts for frontline combat. It is widely speculated that the Wagner Group is used by the Russian government to allow for plausible deniability in certain conflicts, and to obscure from public the number of casualties and financial costs of Russia's foreign interventions. īecause it operates in support of Russian interests, receives military equipment from the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and uses installations of MoD for training, Wagner Group is frequently considered a de facto unit of the MoD or Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU. The accusations include rapes and robberies of civilians, and torturing accused deserters. Wagner operatives have committed war crimes in areas where they are deployed. Its contractors have reportedly taken part in various conflicts around the world-including the civil wars in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic (CAR), and Mali, often fighting on the side of forces aligned with the Russian government. The group came to prominence during the Donbas War in Ukraine, where it helped pro-Russian separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics from 2014 to 2015. While the Wagner Group itself is not ideologically driven, various elements of Wagner have been linked to neo-Nazis and far-right extremists. The group operates beyond the law in Russia, where private military contractors are officially forbidden. It is variously described as a private military company (PMC), a network of mercenaries, or a de facto private army of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'Wagner Private Military Company'), is a Russian paramilitary organization. The Wagner Group ( Russian: Группа Вагнера, romanized: Gruppa Vagnera), also known as PMC Wagner ( Russian: ЧВК «Вагнер», romanized: ChVK «Vagner» lit. ![]()
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