Since 2021, Russian Wagner mercenaries have detained, tortured, and forcibly disappeared hundreds of civilians in secret prisons across Mali, according to a joint investigation published on June 12 by Forbidden Stories, France 24, Le Monde, and IStories.
The Wagner mercenary group announced on June 6 that it was withdrawing its presence from Mali, ending its fight with rebel groups.
Wagner units were key to Russia's seizure of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast in May 2023.
The late Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner mercenary force has been accused of plotting attacks against Western infrastructure in Africa, including U.S. oil company Chevron's pipelines, according to the leaked correspondence of Prigozhin's Concord Group obtained by Ukraine's Channel 24. Another accusation is that Wagner mercenaries have allegedly cooperated
The collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria following a lightning rebel offensive in November has shaken Assad-ally Russia’s near-decade of influence in the country. It has also had one other lesser-known consequence: disrupting Moscow’s ability to recruit Syrian fighters for its war in Ukraine. The Kyiv
The Kremlin confirmed on Dec. 11 that longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad had fled to Moscow after rebels took the capital city of Damascus in a lightning offensive that shocked the world. Assad’s exile in Russia comes as little surprise. The Kremlin had invested heavily in propping up the
Of the total number, 346 were employees of the Wagner company, a private mercenary group also deployed in Russia's war in Ukraine and elsewhere.
The U.K. government on Nov. 7 announced its largest package of sanctions against Russia since May 2023, focusing on the Russian defense industry and mercenary groups.
The Krakow District Court has begun the trial of two Russian nationals, Andrei G. and Aleksei T., who were allegedly hired by the Wagner Group to distribute flyers in Krakow, Poland encouraging people to join the organization.
The statement comes after an article by the French outlet Le Monde claimed that Tuareg fighters from the anti-government CSP movement are using Ukrainian drones against the military and Wagner mercenaries.
A fire broke out at the Wagner Group's former military base in Molkino in Russia's Krasnodar Krai on Sept. 21, Russian independent media outlet Meduza reported, citing Wagner-linked Telegram channel.
Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions. Several months after Russian Sergei Kozlov, an assault fighter of the infamous Wagner Group, returned home from the war in Ukraine, he violently killed his 18-year-old partner Daria, who was pregnant with his child. She was beaten to death, suffering a traumatic
Reuters identified 23 missing Wagner soldiers and two others who were captured by Tuareg fighters. Some of them took part in the occupation of the town of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast. Others served in Libya and Syria.
Key developments on Aug. 26: * Russia launches over 200 missiles, drones in largest attack on Ukraine since start of invasion * Negotiations with Ukraine have now lost their relevance, Kremlin says * Russian authorities claim Saratov Oblast attacked by drones * Wagner Group claims to no longer be fighting in Ukraine * Ukraine has
Wagner mercenaries are operating only in Belarus and Africa, and are not fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine, the Wagner Group claimed in a statement on Telegram on Aug. 26.
"In comparison to its peak personnel count of around 50,000 in 2023, Wagner now likely maintains around 5,000 total personnel across its residual deployments in Belarus and Africa," the ministry said.
Mali's decision to sever diplomatic relations with Ukraine is "regrettable," as Mali's transitional government has not provided evidence that proves Ukraine's involvement in an alleged incident between Wagner mercenaries and Tuareg rebels, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Aug. 5.
The transitional government of Mali is severing diplomatic relations with Ukraine over its alleged support of rebel coalitions, government spokesperson Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga announced on Aug. 4.
"We have links with the Ukrainians, but just as we have with everyone else, the French, Americans, and others," said Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesperson for the pro-independence coalition.
In a post on X, the Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad, said it killed 84 Wagner fighters and 47 Malian troops.
According to the Telegram message, Wagner troops and their Malian army comrades fought off the initial assault by Tuareg rebels, but a sandstorm allowed to the rebels to regroup and lay an ambush, resulting in heavy losses for the coalition of Russian mercenaries and Malian government soldiers.
Mali’s army and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group lost dozens in killed and wounded in a battle with rebels in the country’s north, a spokesman for the rebels claimed on July 27.
Key developments on June 10: * Ukraine hit Russian S-400, S-300 systems in occupied Crimea overnight, General Staff says * Ukraine refutes Kadyrov's claims about captured Sumy Oblast border village * Russia uses submarines to patrol Black Sea after naval losses, military says * Nearly 20,000 Wagner mercenaries died taking Bakhmut, media investigation
BBC Russia and Mediazona obtained documents shortly after the death of Wagner Group's founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin in August 2023, detailing the posthumous payments to relatives of those killed fighting in Ukraine between January 2022 and August 2023.
Russia and Ukraine have played a complex role in Sudan's civil war, with the Kremlin-backed Wagner mercenary group previously backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), while Ukrainian commandos reportedly arrived in Sudan in August 2023 to support the government.
U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller commented on the sanctions, saying that the companies were "advancing the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group's security operations and its illicit mining endeavors in Africa."
Russia plans to sow disinformation in African media that accuses Ukraine of using Western-supplied arms to fight in Sudan, Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) said on April 17.
Small Ukrainian army teams took part in hostilities in Sudan, helping the country's leader fend off Wagner Group-backed rebel forces, the Wall Street Journal reported on March 6, citing Ukrainian and Sudanese military officials.
Andrey Medvedev's lawyer told Reuters that his asylum request was rejected because the Norwegian government did not consider him to have been an official member of the Russian armed forces.
The incorporation of Wagner units into Rosgvardia indicates that the Russian state's control over the private military group has increased, according to the U.K. Defense Ministry.
Editor’s note: This article was updated on Jan. 30, 2024, to reflect the changes made in the original investigative piece by Vsquare after the publication. The previous version of the story claimed that Akshin Dzhangirov received about 285,600 euros in income from Sberbank in 2021. Known for its
The death of an opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin is not something new in history. More than 20 critics and opponents of Putin have been murdered or died in suspicious circumstances since 2000. However, the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary group and once a
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