1,000 mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, are being deployed to the eastern part of Ukraine. For the past eight years, this group has been active in Syria, Ukraine, and African countries. They have been accused of committing human rights abuses and war crimes.
Formation of the group
Dmitri Utkin, a former Russian army officer has been said to be the founder of this group and gave it the name Wagner after his former call-sign. He is a Chechen wars veteran, a lieutenant colonel, and a former special forces officer with the GRU, the military intelligence agency of Russia. This group first witnessed action in 2014 during Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The mercenaries of this group supported the pro-Russian militias that were fighting for control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
Recruitment to the Wagner Group
Wagner Group mostly recruits all those army veterans who need to pay off their debts. They mostly belong to rural areas where money-making opportunities are less.