The mercenary paramilitary Russian Wagner Group has been severely fragmented over the past year, the British Ministry of Defence said on Friday. It stressed that after the deaths of Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, many commanders left the organisation, taking their staff with them. The British ministry said the group's numbers had fallen by around 90 percent.
The latest intelligence update from the UK MoD recalled that Friday marked a year since several key figures at the Wagner Group, including its owner Yevgeny Prigozhin and founder Dmitry “Wagner” Utkin died in a plane crash – very likely caused by an explosion on board.
The ministry said many leading members of the Wagner Group had since left the mercenary paramilitary group.
From 50 thousand there are 5 thousand left
Its former chief of staff, Andrei “Sedoi” Troshev, joined the Russian Ministry of Defense, probably in the private military company Redut, which was established by the ministry, and was entrusted with the task of creating a Volunteer Corps to fight in Ukraine. Aleksandr “Ratibor” Kuznetsov, former commander of the 1st Assault Detachment, joined the Chechen special forces unit Akhmat. Borys “Zombi” Nizhevenok, former commander of the 3rd Assault Detachment, took command of the volunteer unit Vostok-V in May of this year.
“Many Wagner Group veterans have followed these and other former Wagner commanders in leaving the group. Compared to its peak strength of around 50,000 fighters in 2023, the Wagner Group now likely has a total of around 5,000 fighters deployed in Belarus and Africa,” it said.
Main image source: AP/East News