What is Wagner Group? The Mercenary Force That Rebelled Against Russia

The authorities in Russia launched a criminal probe on Friday against Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, after he vowed to topple the Kremlin's military leadership.

Yevgeny Prigozhin had also accused Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike on Wagner's field camps in Ukraine where its soldiers have been fighting on behalf of Russia against Ukrainian forces.

Now, all eyes are on the Wagner Group? Who are they? What do they do?

Well, it is a mercenary group. A mercenary is a professional soldier who is hired to serve in a foreign army. In case of the Wagner Group, it operates in support of Russian interests and had played a key role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The private military company came to light in 2014 after joining hands with the pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.

"Dmitry Utkin is the founder of the Wagner Group. A veteran of both Chechen wars, Utkin served in the GRU until 2013, after which he commanded a Spetsnaz unit, reaching the rank of a lieutenant colonel. In 2013, he quit the service and joined the Moran Security Group, in whose ranks he participated in the Slavonic Corps' above-mentioned, failed operation in Syria. In 2014, he quit Moran and established the Wagner Group. The company was named after his old callsign "Vagner." It cannot be verified whether Utkin initiated the establishment of Wagner Group or was only a front man for someone else," Center For Strategic and International Studies notes (CSIS).

A report in BBC had claimed that the Wagner Group was notorious for its brutality.

In its early days, the group reportedly had 5,000 fighters, but today it commands over 50,000 fighters. The Wagner Group recruited more people in 2022 as Russia had difficulties in finding men for its regular army. The US National Security Council had claimed last year that about 80 per cent of the troops in Ukraine have been hired from prisons.

Notably, Prigozhin's organisation played a central role in Russia's capture of the town of Bakhmut in the eastern region of Donetsk, the longest and bloodiest battle of the conflict.

The main base of the Wagner Group is located in a town called Molkino, in Russia's Krasnodar district, the CSIS noted.

Mercenary forces are illegal in Russia, but the Wagner Group registered as a company in 2022 and opened a new headquarters in St Petersburg. "It is openly recruiting in Russian cities, on billboards, and is being named in Russian media as a patriotic organisation," BBC quoted Dr Samuel Ramani, of the Royal United Services Institute think tank, as saying.