The origin of the Wagner Group, a mysterious shadow company in Russia.
With the fierce unfolding of the Bakhmut War, the word "Wagner" appeared more and more in the news, but little was known about the specific situation of Wagner, only that Wagner was a mercenary group in Russia. Even Du Niang had only one short sentence: the Wagner Group, part of the Russian private military company, founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Founder information is almost zero
There is no exact date on when Wagner was founded, but it is known that it was probably established around 2014, when Wagner mercenaries played a role in the fighting in the Crimea. But the fame at that time was not so great.
Founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is sacred? For his information, the Baidu entry merely shows that he is the founder of the Wagner Group, in fact, in other ways, we can know that he has a close relationship with Pu the Great, dating back to 1996, when Prigozhin ran a very successful restaurant business, and Pu the Great (then deputy mayor of St. Petersburg) dined at his restaurant one day – earning him the nickname "Putin's chef". Shortly after meeting with President Putin in 2001, Prigozhin's catering company began securing lucrative state contracts to feed schools and the military in Russia.
With Pu the Great
The origin of the personnel and equipment of the Wagner Group.
At present, there are about 50,000 Wagner mercenaries, which is the number estimated by the United States, but the exact number is unknown. In fact, the main source of mercenaries is still retired soldiers and special forces, and with their high salaries, the profession of mercenaries is still very attractive. In the Russian-Ukrainian war, the casualties of Wagner's mercenaries were also relatively large, and there were rumors on the Internet: Wagner recruited a large number of felons from Russian prisons. There is such a possibility, but the number of recruits should not be too large, on the one hand, considering the discipline of the troops, on the other hand, the prisoners recruited, after short-term training, it is impossible to go to the battlefield, and the training cycle of less than half a year is required.
Black armbands are their calling card
Wagner mercenaries possess most of the weapons of the Russian Army. At present, on the battlefield, it uses AK-74M rifles and PKP machine guns, and is also equipped with BM-21 "Hail", BM-27 "Hurricane", Pantsir-S1 shell cannon and a large number of drones, communication equipment, night vision devices and bulletproof equipment. Especially in the battle of Bakhmut, it was able to be tough with the regular Ukrainian army and win every day, from which we can imagine that the weapons of mercenaries will definitely not be bad, and the specific source of weapons is self-evident.
Assault rifle with sights
Wagner's role for the Russian army: shadow warriors.
Since mercenaries belong to private armed groups, many of their activities are exempt from international law. If a political strongman like Pu the Great allowed such a powerful military force to exist in the country, we can guess that there must be a deep meaning behind this. Such a mysterious armed force has a wide range of tasks, including espionage, underground work, subversive operations, assassinations and special warfare.
Founder: Prigozhin
From the Russian-Ukrainian war, we have seen the combat effectiveness of Wagner's mercenaries, but the information about them on the Internet is very limited, and the funds, equipment, and operating mechanisms behind them are almost unknown, and they can be called the "shadow warriors" of the Russian army.