The Wagner mercenary group has become “increasingly fragmented” in the year since its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and founder Dmitry Utkin were killed in a plane crash, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.
“In comparison to its peak personnel count of around 50,000 in 2023, Wagner now highly likely maintains around 5,000 total personnel across its residual deployments in Belarus and Africa,” the MoD said in its latest update.
Prigozhin and Utkin were among 10 killed when their plane crashed north of Moscow one year ago today under mysterious circumstances.
It came two months to the day after the Wagner boss led a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military top brass, mounting the most serious challenge against Vladimir Putin since he came to power in 1999.
The Wagner group was formed of ex-convicts and mercenaries and played a key role on the battlefield in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It has also been active in conflicts in Syria, the Central African Republic, Sudan and Libya.
The MoD also shared a map of the latest battlefield situation in eastern Ukraine:
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