The Pentagon said Thursday that the Wagner group was effectively no longer a fighting force after the death of its leader in a plane crash last week.
Tens of thousands of mercenaries were the deadliest part of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but this week the fighters were told to find new jobs.
The Kremlin has denied any role in the crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin last week, two months after he led a mutiny against President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
“The Wagner group is basically over,” Brigadier says. General Pat Ryder said at a Pentagon briefing when asked about arms deals between Wagner and North Korea.
The broader issue here is the Russian government Wagner worked for, supporting operations in Ukraine. And at one point, the Wagner group was the most effective fighting force Russia had on the ground in Ukraine, he said
“And they’ve essentially been removed from the battlefield, because everything matters in the slightest in terms of combat capability.”
Members of the Wagner Group sit on the sidewalk as they patrol downtown Rostov-on-Don during their mutiny in June. On Thursday, the Pentagon declared the outfit “essentially over.”
Brig. General Pat Ryder gave his verdict at a Pentagon briefing a week after Wagner co-founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash
His judgment is supported by an audio message urging mercenaries to find new jobs because they were not allowed to fight in Ukraine.
The independent medium iStories said it had verified the clip, in which a Wagner leader said so despite having “tens of thousands of trained fighters” ready to go to war, “they won’t let us join the (war against Ukraine)” due to “known circumstances.”
We were told to look for other opportunities to make money.
It marks a remarkable turnaround for the network. Just a month ago, a British parliamentary report stated that it remains a serious threat to the security of the West and should be labeled a terrorist group.
It said its operations in at least seven countries (Ukraine, Syria, Central African Republic, Sudan, Libya, Mozambique and Mali) could be mapped and had likely operated in 10 more countries since its inception in 2014 .
In the past year it became famous for its role in Ukraine.
In December 2022, the White House said it had 50,000 combatants in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts.
But in the weeks following Prigozhin’s aborted march to Moscow, there have been several reports of other security forces attempting to take over their duties.
Ryder made his judgment shortly after the co-founder and military commander of the Russian mercenary group Wagner was buried near Moscow. He died in the same unexplained plane crash that killed his boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Members of the Wagner group photo look down from a military vehicle with a sign reading ‘Brother’ in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia in June, where they took over army headquarters
A portrait of the alleged co-founder and military commander of the PMC Wagner group, Dmitry Utkin, killed in a plane crash in the Tver region, sits on his grave at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery in Mytishchi, Moscow Region
A group of men arrive at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery for Utkin’s funeral
Dmitry Utkin, 53, whose callsign “Wagner” gave the private army its name, was buried in Mytishchi, on the outskirts of the capital, in a ceremony cordoned off by Russian military police, according to popular online news channel Shot.
After the cemetery opened hours later, a Reuters journalist saw an engraved black tombstone, a wooden Russian Orthodox cross and at least half a dozen large formal wreaths surrounding the grave.
Some, in red, yellow and black, carried Wagner’s official logo, while a nearby flag bore a lurking skull symbol that the fighters have also used.
The Telegram channel ‘Watch out, news’ said police and members of the Rosgvardia national guard had come to pay their respects, along with a busload of members of the far-right Rusich militia linked to Wagner.
Prigozhin was buried on Tuesday in a low-key family ceremony in his hometown of St Petersburg, which contrasted sharply with his loud and often foul-mouthed social media presence.
Before helping to establish Wagner as Prigozhin’s shadowy right-hand man, Utkin was a special forces lieutenant colonel in the GRU’s military intelligence division.
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