Wagner Group
| Wagner Group | |
|---|---|
|
Группа Вагнера Participant in the War in Donbass and the Syrian Civil War |
|
| Active | 2014 – present |
| Leader | Lt. Col. Dmitry Utkin |
| Size | 1,000–5,000 (March 2016) 6,000 (December 2017) |
| Allies |
 Russian Armed Forces United Armed Forces of Novorossiya Syrian Armed Forces Sudanese Armed Forces
|
| Opponents |
 Armed Forces of Ukraine Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Al-Nusra Front/ Tahrir al-Sham Free Syrian Army
|
| Battles and wars | Sudanese Civil War |
The Wagner Group (Russian: Группа Вагнера, tr. Grupa Vagnera), also known as PMC Wagner, ChVK Wagner, or CHVK Vagner (Russian: ЧВК Вагнер, tr. ChVK Vagner), is a Russian paramilitary organisation. Some have described it as a private military company (or a private military contracting agency), whose contractors have reportedly taken part in various conflicts, including operations in the Syrian Civil War on the side of the Syrian government as well as, from 2014 until 2015, in the War in Donbass in Ukraine aiding the separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. Others are of the opinion that ChVK Wagner is really a unit of the Russian Ministry of Defence in disguise, which is used by the Russian government in conflicts where deniability is called for.
The founder of the company is alleged to be Dmitriy Valeryevich Utkin, who was born in Kirovohrad Oblast (then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR) in 1970. According to the Security Service of Ukraine′s statement in September 2017, Dmitriy Utkin used to be a Ukrainian citizen. Up until 2013, he was a lieutenant colonel and brigade commander of a special forces (Spetsnaz GRU) unit (the 700th Independent Spetsnaz Detachment of the 2nd Independent Brigade) of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). He retired in 2013 and began working for the private company Moran Security Group founded by Russian military veterans; the company performed security and training missions around the world, specializing in security against piracy. The same year, senior Moran Security Group managers were involved in setting up a Saint Petersburg-based organization Slavonic Corps that headhunted contractors to "protect oil fields and pipelines" in Syria. Utkin was in Syria as part of the Slavonic Corps and survived its disastrous mission. The Wagner Group itself first showed up in 2014, along with Utkin in the Luhansk region of Ukraine. The company's name comes from Utkin's own call sign ("Wagner"), which he allegedly chose due to a passion for the Third Reich. In August 2017, the Turkish Yeni Şafak speculated that Utkin was possibly just a figurehead for the company, while the real head of Wagner was someone else.
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