Blood trail. What a legacy Prigozhin and "Wagner" left in Ukraine

During ten years, "Wagner" distinguished itself by participating in military conflicts in Europe, Asia and Africa. But the mercenaries left the bloodiest legacy in Ukraine.

They appeared in the most difficult areas of the front and performed dirty work in the interests of the Russian authorities. The semi-legal status of a private mercenary army allowed them to ignore human casualties.

According to the media, "Wagner" was created at the end of 2013 and at the beginning of 2014 from another Russian private mercenary army called the "Slav Corps".

The new company was named after the then head, retired lieutenant colonel of special forces of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, Dmitri Utkin.

His fighting unit consisted mainly of ex-Russian security forces, often with criminal backgrounds. Only the command staff was relatively constant in "Wagner", the formation of units took place on a rotational basis, which required the recruitment of new mercenaries.

According to the Security Service of Ukraine, the GRU of the Russian Federation coordinated and provided the private mercenary army, and "Wagner" was owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman close to Vladimir Putin.

Already in the spring of 2014, members of "Wagneri" began to participate in hostilities in Crimea and Donbass. A year and a half later, most of the members of "Wagner" were transferred to Syria, where the Russian Federation entered the Syrian war.

The Russian army's failed invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 forced the Kremlin to return the "Wagners" to the Donbass again. The story ended in the summer of 2023 after the protracted battles for Bakhmut and Prigozhin's failed "campaign on Moscow".

The BBC collected the most important operations in Ukraine related to "Wagner".

 

Downing of IL-76 at Luhansk airport

 

In June 2014, the Ukrainian counter-offensive continues in the Donbass. The armed forces of Ukraine are gradually pushing out the pro-Russian "hybrid" formations from the villages and towns of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions occupied in the spring. The strategically important Donetsk and Luhansk airports are held by the Ukrainians.

However, the second operation - the transfer of reinforcements to Lugansk airport - ends in tragedy. On the night of June 14, a Ukrainian Il-76MD aircraft was shot down by a portable missile system. 49 soldiers died then.

In March 2021, the Ukrainian court issued a verdict in absentia against the perpetrators of the tragedy. The then "head of the LNR" Ihor Plotnjitsky and subordinate members of the "Zarja" battalion Andrij Patrushev and Aleksandr Gurejev were recognized as accomplices in the downing of the plane.

They commanded, as stated in the court decision, "unidentified operators of the MANPADS" (portable anti-aircraft missile system), which shot down the Ukrainian plane.

Only three and a half years after the tragedy, in October 2017, the SBU named those who directly shot down the IL-76MD. We are talking about PMK "Wagner" mercenaries Alexander Guraljev and Andriy Lebedev.

At the same time, the head of the special service, Vasyl Hritsak, for the first time revealed information about the participation of "Wagner" soldiers in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine. According to him, the mercenaries have been stationed since May 2014 on the territory of the Luhansk region and provided support to the leader of the "LNR" Plotnytskyi.

In particular, 72 members of "Wagner" participated in the attack on the airport in Luhansk and the downing of the IL-76MD. They lost 15 people.

In general, the Ukrainian services managed to establish the participation of about 1,500 "Wagner" mercenaries in the hostilities in Donbass in the period 2014-15.

In January 2018, the leadership of the Security Service of Ukraine released the intercepted telephone conversations of mercenary army commander Dmytro Utkin with the Russian military leadership regarding hostilities in Ukraine. In the meantime, these materials have been removed from the website and social networks of the Ukrainian special service.

 

Battles for Debaljcevo

 

Since the beginning of 2015, the intensity of fighting in Donbas has decreased. Ukraine suffered a defeat at Ilovaisk and stopped the offensive, the first "Minas Agreements" were signed, which were supposed to resolve the conflict.

But two hotspots remained on the map - the airport in Donetsk and the large railway junction Debaljcevo. Both were under the control of ZSU.

 

At the end of January 2015, pro-Russian "hybrid" forces actually destroyed the airport building in Donetsk, further resistance of Ukrainian troops in this area was impossible.

At the same time, during the winter, the Russian army, together with the "DPR" and "LNR" units, began an operation to encircle Ukrainian troops in Debaltsevo. The operation lasted almost two months. As a result, after heavy and bloody fighting in mid-February 2015, they managed to capture the city.

However, the Ukrainian command managed to withdraw most of its fighters from the encirclement.

As stated by the SBU, the mercenaries of the private mercenary army "Wagner" actively participated in the fighting.

"205 militants participated in the attack on Debaljcevo, 21 people were killed," said the head of the service, Vasil Hritsak, in October 2017.

It is precisely because of the events near Debalcevo that Utkin himself is suspected by the Ukrainian services. In December 2021, the SBU accused him in absentia of participating in an aggressive war and encroaching on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

During the Debaljcevo operation, members of "Wagner" participated both in direct hostilities and in the evacuation of damaged equipment from the battlefield. At the same time, the mercenaries suffered the first heavy losses since the beginning of the war in Donbass, the SBU reported. A unit of militants came under Ukrainian fire on January 28, 2015.

"The facts of intensive shelling by "Wagner" of Ukrainian positions in the direction of Debaltseve have been documented. According to the received data, in these battles, members of "Wagner" suffered heavy losses due to the counteroffensive of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the SBU said in a statement.

In addition to participating in the hostilities, Ukrainian police officers and the Russian independent ZMU reported the alleged involvement of "Wagner" in the murders of "field commanders" of the Lugansk separatists. Specifically, it was the blowing up of the car of Alexander Bednov ("Batman") near Luhansk on January 1, 2015.

 

Capture of Popasna

 

A new stage in the history of "Wagner" began in the spring of 2022. The first weeks of the invasion of Ukraine passed without the "Wagners", who were engaged in "political and other support" of military juntas in African countries, especially in Mali.

 

However, as Yevgeny Prigozhin later stated in an interview, the failed start of the military campaign in Ukraine forced the Kremlin to turn to him for help. So "Wagner" returned to the front.

"In the middle of March, we were called to war," said the boss of "Wagner" on June 23, 2023.

To participate in the war, as the BBC found out, the company "Wagner" announced a mass recruitment of fighters in the Russian Federation. Then "Wagner" began to recruit "everything in order", a source among the mercenaries told the BBC.

The first task on the front for "Wagner" is the capture of the strategically important city of Popasna (Luhansk region). It lies between Bakhmut and Luhansk on a hill and is a railway hub.

According to Prigozhin, his mercenaries arrived in the nearby town of Pervomajsk (six kilometers east of Popasna) on March 19, 2022. The task of the "Wagners" was to break through the defense line of the Armed Forces, which they had been building since 2014.

According to Prigozhin, the armed forces of the Russian Federation could not cope with this task. "Wagner" broke through Ukrainian defenses in this area in two months.

By May 9, 2022, "Wagner" successfully solved the task of breaking through the fortified defense zone of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the first point of which was the settlement of Popasna. The presence of these fortified areas is not included in the SVO (special military operations) plans," Prigozhin said.

The residential neighborhood of Popasna was destroyed by shelling. On May 8, the Russian authorities announced the "liberation" of the city from Ukrainian troops.

Prigozhin himself later said that he received the "Hero of Russia" medal for the occupation of Popasna.

"Indeed, on June 20 last year, a decree was issued for the occupation of Popasna. This star, I believe, was awarded only thanks to the heroism of the "Wagner" fighters and those fighters from the Ministry of Defense of the Armed Forces who supported us during the attack on Popasna," Prigozhin's press service quoted his words on June 20, 2023.

After Popasna, members of "Wagner" were involved in operations to capture neighboring Sjeverodonjek and Lisičansk. British intelligence officers are sure that these battles significantly affected the state of the private mercenary army.

"Wagner" almost certainly played a central role in the battles, including the capture of Popasna and Lisičansk. These battles caused heavy losses to the group,” the intelligence report said.

 

As proof of this, "Wagner" started a large project of recruiting prisoners in Russian prisons in June last year, in order to fill its ranks.

In the coming year, they will become the driving force of "Wagner" and its "expendable material".

According to approximate estimates, about 50,000 prisoners joined the ranks of "Wagner". Almost half of them died fighting for Soledar and Bahmut.

 

Breakthrough in Soledar and the "Bahmut Meat Machine"

 

The next big operation "Wagner" was the climax on the Ukrainian front. It is the capture of Bahmut and neighboring Soledar. The offensive on these two Donbas cities lasted almost 10 months.

Yevgeny Prigozhin assured that the attack on Bahmut began on October 8, 2022. Allegedly, he himself developed the plan to capture the city, as well as the commander of the Russian army group in Ukraine at the time, General Sergei Surovikin. It is planned to capture the city in half a year.

"Wagners", as well as units of the Russian regular army, gradually began to approach the periphery from the south, east and northeast.

At the same time, the head of "Wagner" directly stated that Bakhmut has no strategic importance. Russia's main goal seemed to be to draw large forces of the Ukrainian army into this "meat machine" of mercenary battles, while in the meantime providing time for rest and mobilization of reserves in the regular Russian troops.

"The purpose of the Bahmut Meat Machine operation was to give Russian army units the opportunity to occupy favorable defensive lines, to mobilize, re-equip, train personnel and increase their combat potential," Prigozhin said in May.

They supported this idea with actions, using the "mass attacks" tactic.

That is, attacks on Ukrainian positions were carried out by small infantry groups consisting mainly of ex-convicts. They were supposed to approach the Ukrainian trenches and occupy them. If a group of Russian infantry was killed, a new wave followed and so on.

The constant pressure paid off when, in January 2023, the Ukrainian defense line northeast of Bakhmut - in the town of Soledar - broke. The soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were forced to withdraw from their positions in order to avoid being surrounded.

 

After that, the "Wagers" began to gradually bypass Bakhmut from the north and south, cutting off the supply routes of the Ukrainian army. In March, only one route to Kostiantinivka remained relatively safe, the roads to Slavyansk and Siversk were cut off.

Under such circumstances, as well as taking into account the fact that the fighting began directly in the residential areas of the city, Ukrainian forces were forced to gradually withdraw towards the west.

Bahmut was wiped off the face of the earth by artillery fire and airstrikes.

On May 20, Yevgeny Prigozhin announced the taking of the city under full control. The Ukrainian authorities did not recognize this, stating that the southwestern outskirts of Bakhmut remained under the control of the Armed Forces.

According to the words of the head of "Wagner", the operation in Bamut cost him 20,000 soldiers. Similar data on Russian losses were published by the American authorities.

It should be noted that these figures exceed the level of losses of the armies of the USSR during the entire ten-year war in Afghanistan (15,000 dead) and the US during eight years of hostilities in Iraq (4,800 dead).

"Wagner" lost its combat potential after the capture of Bakhmut, Prigozhin admitted. Because of this, his mercenaries were withdrawn from the front for rest and replenishment.

Now, after the likely death of the "Wagner" leadership, the continued existence of the organization is in great question.