A Russian paramilitary organisation named “The Wagner Group” is speculated to have been drawn into the 2022 Ukraine invasion with a specific mission in mind; the assassination of Ukraine’s President and other prominent figures.
The organisation has been widely talked about in international security & military circles since its inception in 2014 when Russia first invaded Ukraine. The Wagner Group is believed to be owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a claim Putin himself vehemently denies. Prigozhin is a businessman so closely tied to Putin’s dirty work that he’s dubbed “Putin’s Chef.”
Wagner is based in Argentina and has offices in Saint Petersburg and Hong Kong. Its members are usually retired former Russian military men between 35 and 55. The original founder is reported to be Dmitriy Valeryevich Utkin, a retired lieutenant colonel & brigade commander of a special forces unit of the Main Directorate of Russian Intelligence (GRU).
Whilst the Russian government label The Wagner Group as a “private organisation”, many experts believe Wagner is an arms-length unit of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the GRU in disguise, which the Russian government uses in conflicts where deniability is called for, as its forces are trained on MoD installations.
Even though The Wagner Group has been accused of war crimes, the Russian government has no qualms in recruiting this outfit to do its bidding over and over again.
Since 2014, The Wagner Group has done Russia’s dirty work in several battles and wars, including:
– War in Donbas
– Syrian Civil War
– Sudanese Civil War
– Central African Republic Civil War
– Second Libya campaign
– Sudanese Revolution
– Mali war
– Russian invasion of Ukraine
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