What is the Wagner Group? A look at the mercenary force led by Yevgeny Prigozhin

Once a low-profile businessman who benefited from having President Vladimir Putin as a powerful patron, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin moved into the global spotlight with Russia’s war in Ukraine.

As the leader of a mercenary force who depicts himself as fighting many of the Russian military’s toughest battles in Ukraine, Prigozhin has now moved into his most dangerous role yet - preaching open rebellion against his country’s military leadership.

In a series of messages from late Friday (Jun 23) into Saturday, Prigozhin claimed that he and his troops have entered the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and taken control of its military sites – a move President Vladimir Putin described as an armed mutiny and a “stab in the back”.

Here’s a look Wagner’s role in the war and its 62-year-old leader’s ties with Putin:

What is the Wagner Group?

The Wagner Group was first seen in action in eastern Ukraine soon after a separatist conflict erupted there in April 2014, in the weeks following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Russia calls it a private military company but US officials see it as a proxy organisation of the Russian state.

Wagner was named after the nickname of its first commander, Dmitry Utkin, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Russian military’s special forces.

The US estimated that the group had about 50,000 personnel fighting in Ukraine, comprising 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts. A US official said nearly half of the 20,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine since December have been Wagner’s troops in Bakhmut.

What is Wagner’s role in Ukraine?

Wagner took an increasingly visible role in the war as regular Russian troops suffered heavy attrition and lost territory in humiliating setbacks.

Prigozhin toured Russian prisons to recruit fighters, promising pardons if they survived a half-year tour of front-line duty with Wagner.

In an interview in May, he said he had recruited 50,000 convicts, about 10,000 of whom were killed in Bakhmut; a similar number of his own fighters have died there.

The US assesses that Wagner is spending about US$100 million a month in the fight. In December, Washington accused North Korea of supplying weapons, including rockets and missiles, to the Russian company in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

Both Wagner and North Korea denied the reports.

Who is Wagner chief Prigozhin?

Prigozhin and Putin go way back. Both were born in Leningrad, what is now known as St Petersburg.

During the final years of the Soviet Union, Prigozhin served time in prison - 10 years by his own admission - although he does not say what it was for.

Afterwards, he owned a hot dog stand and then fancy restaurants that drew interest from Putin. In his first term, the Russian leader took then-French President Jacques Chirac to dine at one of them.

“Vladimir Putin saw how I built a business out of a kiosk, he saw that I don’t mind serving to the esteemed guests because they were my guests,” Prigozhin recalled in an interview published in 2011.

His businesses expanded significantly to catering and providing school lunches. In 2010, Putin helped open Prigozhin’s factory which was built on generous loans by a state bank. In Moscow alone, his company Concord won millions of dollars in contracts to provide meals at public schools.

He also organised catering for Kremlin events for several years - earning him the nickname “Putin’s chef” - and has provided catering and utility services to the Russian military.

How has Wagner clashed with Russia’s leadership?

As his forces fought and died en masse in Ukraine, Prigozhin raged against Russia’s military brass. 
In a video released by his team last month, Prigozhin stood next to rows of bodies he said were those of Wagner fighters.

He accused Russia’s regular military of incompetence and of starving his troops of the weapons and ammunition they needed to fight.

“These are someone’s fathers and someone’s sons,” Prigozhin said then. “The scum that doesn’t give us ammunition will eat their guts in hell.”

Prigozhin also has singled out Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu for criticism.

He posted a series of angry videos and audio recordings in which he accused Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike Friday on Wagner’s field camps in Ukraine, where his troops are fighting on behalf of Russia.

Prigozhin said his troops would punish Shoigu in an armed rebellion and urged the army not to offer resistance.

“This is not a military coup, but a march of justice,” Prigozhin declared.

The defence ministry denied carrying out the rocket attack.

How is Moscow reacting?

In a televised address on Saturday, Putin said “traitors” who had taken up arms against the Russian military would be punished.

He said "excessive ambitions and vested interests have led to treason", and called the mutiny a "stab in the back".

The National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which is part of the Federal Security Services, or FSB, said Prigozhin would be investigated on charges of calling for an armed rebellion.

The FSB urged Wagner’s contract soldiers to arrest Prigozhin and refuse to follow his “criminal and treacherous orders”. 

Riot police and the National Guard have been scrambled to tighten security at key facilities in Moscow, including government agencies and transport infrastructure, state news agency TASS reported.

How could this affect Russia’s war?

The rebellion marks the most serious challenge yet to Putin's long rule and Russia's most serious security crisis since he came to power in late 1999.

It could divert attention and resources away from the battlefields in Ukraine, at a time when Kyiv is in the midst of a counteroffensive to seize back territory.

Ukraine's army has said it was "watching" the infighting between Prigozhin and Putin.

Moscow meanwhile has warned that Kyiv's army was seizing the moment to concentrate its troops "for offensive actions" near Bakhmut.

The significance of the mutiny was also not lost on world leaders, with leaders of the United States, France and Germany all saying that they are watching developments closely.

Where else has Wagner operated?

Wagner had come to play a central role in Putin’s projection of Russian influence in trouble spots around the world.

The US, European Union and United Nations have said the mercenary force was involved in conflicts in countries across Africa in particular. Wagner fighters allegedly provide security for national leaders or warlords in exchange for lucrative payments, often including a share of gold or other natural resources.

Western countries and UN experts have accused Wagner mercenaries of human rights abuses throughout Africa, including in Central African Republic, Libya and Mali.

In 2021, the European Union accused the group of “serious human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings”, and of carrying out “destabilising activities” in the Central African Republic, Libya, Syria and Ukraine.