Wikipedia (en)
The Wagner Group (Russian: Группа Вагнера, tr. Gruppa Vagnera), officially known as PMC Wagner (Russian: ЧВК «Вагнер», tr. ChVK «Vagner»; lit. 'Wagner Private Military Company'), is a Russian paramilitary organization. It is seen as a private military company (PMC), a network of mercenaries and a de facto private army of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It operates in support of Russian interests, receives equipment from the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and has used MoD installations for training. While the Wagner Group itself is not ideologically driven, various elements of Wagner have been linked to neo-Nazism and far-right politics.It is widely speculated that the Wagner Group is used by the Russian government to allow for plausible deniability and to obscure the true casualties and financial costs of Russia's foreign interventions. 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. Its contractors have reportedly taken part in various conflicts around the world, including the civil wars in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, and Mali, often fighting on the side of forces aligned with the Russian government. Wagner operatives have been accused of having committed war crimes in areas where they are deployed. The accusations include rape and robbery of civilians, as well as torturing accused deserters.Wagner has played a significant role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where it has been reportedly deployed to assassinate Ukrainian leaders, among other activities, and for which it has recruited prison inmates from Russia for frontline combat. In December 2022, United States National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby claimed Wagner has 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts. Others put the number of recruited prisoners at more than 20,000, with the overall number of PMC forces present in Ukraine estimated at 20,000. In 2023, Russia granted combat veteran status to Wagner contractors who took part in the invasion.After 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. He specifically declared, "I am proud that I was able to defend their right to protect the interests of their country." On 23 June 2023, Prigozhin staged a rebellion against the Russian leadership after accusing Russian troops of attacking his men. Wagner units were pulled from Ukraine and moved into Rostov-on-Don in Rostov Oblast, Russia, according to early reports by Prigozhin.
