As the rebels of the Wagner Group advance towards the Russian capital Moscow on Saturday (24th), the world’s eyes are on the mercenary army that rose to fame during the war in Ukraine. Commanded by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, the troops were instrumental in capturing Ukrainian territories such as the city of Bakhmut. But the group’s work didn’t begin with the conflict, which began on February 24, 2022. Wagner has been active in conflicts in Syria and African countries since 2015.
The group’s origins date back to the 2014 crisis in Ukraine, when a strong wave of protests in the country led to a coup and armed conflict in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. The appearance of Prigozhin’s group would be associated with a coverup of Russian interference in Ukrainian affairs.
“The role of private initiatives [em conflitos] In 2014, events in Ukraine and the emergence of private military companies increased, and their initiatives were associated with the application of principles of “hybrid warfare” based on the fact that regular military parties do not participate in military actions,” he said said researcher Pavel Usov, head of the Center for Political Analysis and Prognosis of Belarus, in an interview with Brasil de Fato in April this year.
However, the actions of Wagner and other private military groups were covered up by the Russian government. On May 1, 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that the Wagner Group was operating on the territory of Ukraine, arguing that this was disinformation from Kiev.
Only in January 2023 did the Russian government allow Wagner to perform. The Russian Ministry of Defense itself for the first time officially recognized the merits of Prigozhin’s mercenaries on the battlefield. In particular, the pamphlet highlighted “the bravery” of the Wagner fighters when the Russian army announced the capture of the Soledar region in the Donbass.
The prison recruited soldiers
One of the Wagner Group’s tactics is to recruit soldiers from Russian prisons. Offenders convicted of serious crimes are promised pardon after six months on the front lines. However, many never enjoy their freedom. According to the head of the group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, nearly 10,000 conscripts had died in Ukraine by May this year.
“They are thrown at the Ukrainian positions in big waves, opening up some new combat points, in practice the losses are in the hundreds. In other words: what is happening there now shows that those who serve the Wagner group have no value, neither military nor cadre, it is simply available material. The task is simply to run, call fire on yourself, and then use military artillery to advance towards Ukrainian positions,” explained researcher Pavel Usov.
In January this year, a report of the military intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on the tactics of the Wagner battalion’s combat operations in Ukraine was published. The study, also conducted on the basis of wiretaps, pointed to Prigozhin’s “brutal indifference to victims” in executing militants who attempted to surrender to the Ukrainians or made illicit deductions.
The Ukrainian analysis states that Wagner’s tactics “are the only effective ones for the poorly trained and deployed troops that make up the bulk of Russia’s ground forces.”
Editing: Raquel Setz