Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images
The Wagner Group, a Russian state-funded private military corporation filled with mercenaries and led by ignoble billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin, entered the American consciousness with Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Even more people came to know them when Prigozhin staged a short-lived mutiny where his forces briefly took the city or Rostov in southwestern Russia. Putin was able to end the mutiny without any damage, except to his fearsome reputation.
Since then, Wagner fighters in the region have turned over their arms to the Russian military and have avoided being held imprisoned or executed for their role in the mutiny. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has stated the paramilitary groups would train the Belarusian military in weapons and tactics.