Wikipedia (en)
The Wagner Group (Russian: Группа Вагнера, romanized: Gruppa Vagnera), also known as PMC Wagner, ChVK Wagner, or CHVK Vagner, is a Russian paramilitary organization. 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. Officially the group does not exist. 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 came to global prominence during the war in Donbas in Ukraine, where it aided separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics from 2014 to 2015. 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. Though welcomed by some allied factions, such as the governments of Syria and the CAR, Wagner operatives have been accused of war crimes in areas where they are deployed. The accusations include rapes and robberies of civilians, and at one point a video was published of Wagner PMCs torturing an accused deserter.Because it often operates in support of Russian interests or foreign policy objectives and is reportedly trained on installations of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD), several sources consider PMC Wagner an arm's-length unit of the MoD or Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU. Likewise, the group is widely believed to be owned or financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close links to Putin. It is speculated that the Wagner Group is used by the Russian government to allow for plausible deniability in certain conflicts, and to obscure the number of casualties and financial costs of Russia's foreign interventions from the public; it has most recently been tied to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, where it has been reportedly deployed to assassinate Ukrainian leaders.
