The Wagner Group: An Encounter with the Paramilitary

With the advance of the Wagner Group rebels towards the Russian capital, Moscow, on Saturday (24), the eyes of the world turn to the mercenary army that gained notoriety during the war in Ukraine. Led by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, the troops were decisive in conquering Ukrainian lands, such as the city of Bakhmut. But the group’s work did not begin with the conflict that began on February 24, 2022. Wagner has been working on conflicts in Syria and in African countries since 2015.

The group has its origins in the crisis in Ukraine in 2014, when a powerful wave of protests in the country led to a coup and armed conflict in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. The entry of Prigozhin’s group into the arena will be associated with covering up Russian interference in Ukrainian affairs.

The role of private initiatives [em conflitos] It increased in 2014 with the events in Ukraine and the emergence of private military companies, and their initiatives were associated with the use of the principles of “hybrid warfare”, which is based on the fact that regular military actors do not participate in military actions, “said researcher Pavel Usov, head of the Center for Political Analysis and Forecasting in Belarus , in an interview with Brasil de Vato 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, stating that this would amount to disinformation from Kiev.

Only in January 2023 did the Russian government recognize Wagner’s performance. The Russian Ministry of Defense itself for the first time officially recognized the merits of Prigozhin’s mercenaries on the battlefield. In particular, the file highlighted the “courage” of Wagner’s fighters amid the announcement of the Russian forces’ seizure of the Soledar region in Donbass.

Soldier conscription prison

One of the tactics of the Wagner Group is to recruit soldiers from Russian prisons. Criminals convicted of serious crimes were promised amnesty after six months in prison. Before. However, many never enjoy their freedom. According to information published by the head of the group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in May of this year, nearly 10,000 conscript prisoners died in Ukraine.

“They are thrown in large waves to the Ukrainian positions and open 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 are worthless, neither military nor cadre, it is simply disposable material. He explained. Researcher Pavel Usov states that the task is simply to run out, shoot yourself, and then have military artillery advance on the Ukrainian positions.

In January of this year, a report by the Military Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on the tactics of combat operations of the Wagner Battalion in Ukraine was revealed. The study, which included wiretaps, noted Prigozhin’s “brutal indifference to the victims”, with executions of fighters who attempted to surrender to Ukrainians or made unauthorized withdrawals.

The Ukrainian analysis stated that Wagner tactics “are the only effective tactics for the poorly trained and dispersed forces that make up the majority of Russia’s ground forces”.

Editing: Raquel Seitz