What is Wagner? All about the mercenary group threatening Putin's regime

In a purported audio message, head of mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has vowed to topple Russia's military leadership. This comes after Prigozhin accused the Russian government of launching strikes on his men and killing 'a huge number' of his fighters at a military camp. Prigozhin in the audio message said that he and his group are going forward and will keep on going till the very end. Whoever comes in our way will be destroyed, he threatened.

The development can be seen as the most offensive challenge to President Putin since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. After the message, Russia has tightened security in several regions of the country and is taking every step to ensure the safety of the Russian citizens.

What is the Wagner Group and why are they fighting?

The Wagner Group came into the limelight due to its role in the Russian-Ukraine conflict. It was formed in 2014 while backing pro-Russian forces in Ukraine and was a secret organization operating in Africa and Middle Eastern regions. Some reports claimed that the Wagner group was thought to have 5,000 fighters from Russia’s elite regiment and special forces.

This group soon established a reputation for its brutality and ruthlessness. In the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, Prigozhin claimed sole credit for the capture of the Donetsk region in January of this year. According to a report by the Associated Press, "he (Prigozhin) has repeatedly said that the Russian military has failed to provide the required ammunition to capture Bakhmut and threatened to pull out its men." 

In December, the US believed that the Wagner Group had an estimated 50,000 personnel inside Ukraine which included 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts from Russian prisons. The Wagner Group's role in Russian military actions has been refuted by Russia. However, a Russian think tank detailed that Wagner is connected to the Russian state and played a big role in Russia’s operations in Ukraine in 2014 and 2015. 

The Wagner Group is also believed to have sent military aircraft to Libya, as well as the Central African Republic in its civil war, where it was accused of executing civilians, attacking UN Peacekeepers, and committing many atrocities which included the execution of unarmed men. The United States designated the group as a transnational criminal organization that committed 'widespread human rights violations'.