The head of the private military contractor Wagner called Friday for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia's defence minister. Here's a look at the 62-year-old Yevgeny Prigozhin and Wagner's role in the war.
The head of the private military contractor Wagner called Friday for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia's defence minister. Russian security services reacted immediately by opening a criminal investigation into Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The FSB urged Wagner's contract soldiers to arrest Prigozhin and refuse to follow his "criminal and treacherous orders." It called his statements a "stab in the back to Russian troops" and said they amounted to fomenting an armed conflict in Russia. While backing the separatist insurgency in the Donbas, Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, Russia denied sending its own weapons and troops there despite ample evidence to the contrary. Engaging private contractors in the fighting allowed Moscow to maintain a degree of deniability.
Some Russian media alleged that Wagner was involved in the 2018 killings of three Russian journalists in Central African Republic who were investigating the group's activities. The slayings remain unsolved.Western countries and UN experts have accused Wagner mercenaries of human rights abuses throughout Africa, including in Central African Republic, Libya and Mali.
In 2022, another video showed a former Wagner contractor beaten to death with a sledgehammer after he allegedly fled to the Ukrainian side and was repatriated. Despite public outrage and demands for an investigation, the Kremlin turned a blind eye.Wagner took an increasingly visible role in the war as regular Russian troops suffered heavy attrition and lost territory in humiliating setbacks.
The U.S. has estimated Wagner had about 50,000 personnel fighting in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts. A U.S. official says nearly half of the 20,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine since December have been Wagner's troops in Bakhmut.
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