Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday that the company was using its access to gold and other resources in Africa to fund its operations in Ukraine. Prigozhin has reportedly used Wagner’s deployment to Syria and African countries to secure lucrative mining contracts. The group also has operated in the Central African Republic and Mali. In Libya, they fought alongside forces of Libyan commander Khalifa Hifter.
It soon established a reputation for its extreme brutality and ruthlessness.Īlong with Ukraine, Wagner personnel deployed to Syria, where Russia supported President Bashar Assad’s government in the country’s civil war. Prigozhin’s company was called Wagner after the nickname of its first commander, Dmitry Utkin, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Russian military’s special forces. Engaging private contractors in the fighting allowed Moscow to maintain a degree of deniability. 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. The Wagner Group was first spotted in action in eastern Ukraine soon after a separatist conflict erupted there in April 2014, weeks after Russia’s annexation of Crimea. This month, he declared he also founded, led and financed it. Prigozhin denied any link to the Wagner Group before he acknowledged owning the company in September. for meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Prigozhin, 61, used his ties with Putin to develop a catering business and won lucrative Russian government contracts that earned him the nickname of “Putin’s chef.” He later expanded to other businesses, including media outlets and an infamous “troll factory” that led to his indictment in the U.S.
It was in this capacity that he got to know Putin, who served as the city’s deputy mayor in the 1990s. Petersburg following his release from prison.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, who received a 12-year prison term in 1981 on charges of robbery and assault, started a restaurant business in St. Here is a look at the Wagner Group’s history and its current role in the fighting. this week expanded sanctions against Wagner for its role in Ukraine and mercenary activities in Africa. The ferocious house-to house fighting has produced some of the bloodiest encounters since Russia sent troops into Ukraine, with Wagner personnel “marching on the bodies of their own soldiers” as Ukrainian authorities put it. Wagner has spearheaded the push to jump-start Russia’s stalemated offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province.
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