57 Facts About Wagner Group

Wagner Group, known as PMC Wagner, ChVK Wagner, or CHVK Vagner, is a Russian paramilitary organization.

Wagner Group first appeared in Ukraine in 2014, where it participated in the annexation of Crimea.

Wagner Group itself was first active in 2014, along with Utkin, in the Luhansk region of Ukraine.

Radio Liberty cited insiders as saying that the leadership of the Wagner Group are followers of the Slavic Native Faith, a modern Pagan new religious movement.

However, Erica Gaston, a senior policy adviser at the UN University Centre for Policy Research, noted that Wagner Group is not ideologically driven, but rather a network of mercenaries "linked to the Russian security state".

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Wagner Group was supposed to travel with Valery Zakharov, a Russian security advisor to the President of the Central African Republic.

In early 2016, Wagner Group had 1,000 employees, which later rose to 5,000 by August 2017, and 6,000 by December 2017.

Wagner Group only accepts new recruits if a 10-year confidentiality agreement is established and in case of a breach of the confidentiality the company reserves the right to terminate the employee's contract without paying a fee.

Serb unitWagner Group is believed to have a Serb unit, which was, until at least April 2016, under the command of Davor Savicic, a Bosnian Serb who was a member of the Serb Volunteer Guard during the Bosnian War and the Special Operations Unit during the Kosovo War.

Wagner Group was reported to had been involved in the first offensive to capture Palmyra from the Islamic State in early 2016.

In early February 2018, the SBU reported that one Serb member of Wagner Group, who was a veteran of the conflict in Syria, had been killed while fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Wagner Group includes a contingent known as Rusich, or Task Force Rusich, referred to as a "sabotage and assault reconnaissance group", which has been fighting as part of the Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.

In September 2017, the chief of Ukraine's Security Service Vasyl Hrytsak said that, in their opinion, Wagner Group was in essence "a private army of Putin" and that the SBU were "working on identifying these people, members of Wagner Group PMC, to make this information public so that our partners in Europe knew them personally".

The Wagner Group has been compared with Academi, the American security firm formerly known as Blackwater.

Wagner Group PMCs were first active in February 2014 in Crimea during Russia's 2014 annexation of the peninsula where they operated in line with regular Russian army units, disarmed the Ukrainian Army and took control over facilities.

Ivannikov, according to a Wagner Group PMC, supervised both their forces, as well as that of the LPR separatists, during the fighting in 2014 and 2015.

Wagner Group left Ukraine and returned to Russia in autumn of 2015, with the start of the Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War.

Wagner Group was pulled out of eastern Ukraine in August 2014, reportedly because the Russian authorities felt he was too much of a liability, after which he started opposing the Kremlin.

Times reported that the Wagner Group flew in more than 400 contractors from the Central African Republic in mid- to late-January 2022 on a mission to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and members of his government, and thus to prepare the ground for Russia to take control for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which started on 24 February 2022.

Two days later, a US official stated that there were "some indications" that Wagner Group was being employed, but it was not clear where or how much.

Wagner Group was accused of killing three Ukrainian soldiers who were taken as prisoners following the pro-Russian takeover of the town of Lohvynove, as well as for allegedly taking part in a civilian massacre in Espia, Libya.

The usage of Wagner Group had reportedly cost Russia 170 million dollars by August 2016.

Some reports stated that the contracts with Damascus were established after Wagner Group lost the trust and financing of the Russian Defense Ministry in early 2016.

Wagner Group PMCs were involved in both Palmyra offensives in 2016 and 2017, as well as the Syrian Army's campaign in central Syria in the summer of 2017 and the Battle of Deir ez-Zor in late 2017.

Wagner Group pointed out that Russia managed to remove the need for deploying large numbers of ground forces by bringing in the Russian PMCs who, unlike American PMCs who were usually only in support roles, were used as highly capable assault troops and that they were often embedded with Syrian units to increase their fighting ability.

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Wagner Group pointed out that the Russian public proved completely indifferent to the losses suffered by the PMCs, believing that "these people are highly paid, and knew what they were getting into".

Three other Wagner Group commanders stated the claim of 200 dead was an exaggeration and that 15 PMCs were killed at the most.

At the start of May 2019, it was reported Wagner Group snipers were being deployed along the Idlib frontline in northwest Syria in anticipation of a Syrian Army offensive.

In late December 2021, Wagner Group PMCs took part in a large-scale military operation against ISIL cells in the Syrian desert.

The Wagner Group's operations became more elusive following al-Bashir's overthrow and they continued to mostly work with Sudan's Rapid Support Forces.

Wagner Group was said to be linked to the Deputy Chairman of the TMC and commander of the RSF, Gen.

The Wagner Group obtained lucrative mining concessions and 16 kilometres from the town of Abidiya, in Sudan's northeastern gold-rich area, a Russian-operated gold mine was set up that was thought to be an outpost of the Wagner Group.

Geologists of the Wagner Group-linked "Meroe Gold" company visited Darfur to assess its uranium potential.

In December 2018, the Ukrainian SBU reported that the umbrella structure of Wagner Group in the CAR is a commercial firm affiliated with Yevgeny Prigozhin – M-Finance LLC Security Service from St Petersburg, whose main areas of activity are mining of precious stones and private security services.

In December 2021, the Wagner Group was reported to be arresting civilians in Bria, and forcing them to do work for the contractors.

In mid-February 2022, a Wagner Group-led government offensive was launched in the northeast of the country, that involved 400 Wagner Group contractors and 200 former rebels.

Several days later, Wagner Group members clashed with rebels in a village near Ndele, pushing the rebels out.

Mid-April 2022, Wagner Group PMCs were accused of killing 20 civilians in two towns between Ndele and Tiringoulou.

Independent media group the Project reported that Wagner PMCs arrived in Madagascar in April 2018, to guard political consultants that were hired by Yevgeny Prigozhin to accompany the presidential campaign of then-president Hery Rajaonarimampianina for the upcoming elections.

One of the last acts of Rajaonarimampianina's administration was said to be to facilitate a Russian firm's takeover of Madagascar's national chromite producer "Kraoma" and Wagner Group PMCs were reported to be guarding the chrome mines as of October 2018.

Wagner Group headquarters was set up at a hospital in the town of Esbia, 50 kilometers south of Tripoli, where the PMCs were stated to have detained and shot the family of a man who had stumbled upon the contractors by mistake.

Wagner Group PMCs were claimed to be in the vehicles, with one of them being killed and another wounded.

An anonymous Russian source close to the Wagner Group stated that another group of PMCs had already arrived in advance of the May 2018 presidential election.

In early August 2019, the Wagner Group received a contract with the government of Mozambique over two other private military companies, OAM and Black Hawk, by offering their services for lower costs.

On 25 September, a second Russian cargo plane landed in Nampula province and unloaded large-calibre weapons and ammunition belonging to the Wagner Group, which were then transported to the Cabo Delgado province where, from 5 October 2017, an Islamist insurgency had been taking place.

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Analysts, mercenaries and security experts, including the heads of OAM and Black Hawk, which operate in Sub-Saharan Africa, were of the opinion that Wagner Group was struggling in Mozambique since they were operating in a theater where they did not have much expertise.

French government sources stated the allegation of Wagner Group's deployment was based on factors that included the development of a new military base near Bamako's airport as well as "suspicious flight patterns".

In mid-January 2022, Wagner Group PMCs were deployed at a former French military base in Timbuktu, in northern Mali.

On 19 April 2022, the first officially confirmed death of a Russian military advisor, said to be a Wagner Group member, took place when a military patrol hit a roadside bomb near the town of Hombori.

On 22 April 2022, three days after the French military handed over the Gossi military base to Malian forces, France claimed suspected Wagner Group PMCs buried a dozen bodies in a mass grave a few kilometres east of the base soon after the withdrawal, with the intent of blaming France.

The standard compensation for the family of a killed Wagner Group employee is up to 5 million rubles, according to a Wagner Group official.

Wagner Group PMCs have received state awards in the form of military decorations and certificates signed by Russian President Putin.

Wagner Group had been attempting to find a lawyer, but later Borodin called his friend and said he made a mistake and that he thought the men had been taking part in some kind of training exercise.

The major was in regular communication with the journalists' driver on the day of their murders and he had frequent communications with a Wagner Group PMC who was a specialist trainer in counter-surveillance and recruitment in Central Africa.

However, Bellingcat reported that the Wagner Group was not present in Nagorno-Karabakh, pointing to the Reverse Side of the Medal public channel, used by Russian PMCs, including Wagner.

RSOTM posted two images and a song alluding to the possibility of Wagner Group PMCs arriving in Nagorno-Karabakh, but Bellingcat determined the images were unrelated.

The United States Department of Defense stated it was aware of allegations that the Wagner Group might have been "a force behind the military takeover in Burkina Faso" but could not confirm if they were true.