One year after Prigozhin’s death
Wagner Group splinters, commanders jump ship
23.08.2024, 16:07
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The death of Yevgeny Prigozhin a year ago essentially also marked the end of the Wagner mercenary group. The British Ministry of Defense reports that it is increasingly fragmented. Only a fraction of the former employees are still left.
One year after the death of Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, his private army Wagner has become increasingly fragmented, according to British estimates. Since the plane crash, many leading figures have left the group, the British Ministry of Defense announced on Platform X.
“Compared to the peak of 50,000 employees in 2023, Wagner now most likely has around 5,000 employees in its remaining missions in Belarus and Africa,” the ministry said in London. According to analyses by military experts, many former Wagner fighters have transferred directly to the Russian army or to paramilitary units under the control of the Ministry of Defense.
A year ago, on August 23, 2023, Prigozhin’s private jet crashed. Two months earlier, he had instigated a brief uprising against Russia’s military leadership. All ten people on board were killed in the plane crash. Among them was Wagner founder Dmitri Utkin.
The Wagner group became internationally known through its involvement in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. It also carried out missions in African countries. After the failed uprising, Prigozhin and many of his comrades initially went to Belarus to reorganize themselves.
Other Wagner members left the group. According to the British Ministry of Defense, former Wagner leadership member Andrei Troshev, for example, joined the Russian Ministry of Defense – with the task of setting up volunteer units for fighting in Ukraine, the British write.
The British Ministry of Defence has been publishing regular information on the course of the war since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine more than two years ago. Moscow accuses London of disinformation.