The Wagner Group is known to have operated in at least 11 countries; Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, Mozambique, Central African Republic, Mali, Libya, Venezuela, and Madagascar, spanning four continents, Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. There are unconfirmed reports of activities in other countries.
Ukraine Wagner has played a significant role in the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, where it has been reportedly deployed to assassinate Ukrainian leaders, The PMCs, along with the regular soldiers, were called "
polite people" at the time due to their well-mannered behavior. They kept to themselves, carried weapons that were not loaded, and mostly made no effort to interfere with civilian life. Another name for them was "
little green men" since they were masked, wearing unmarked green army uniforms and their origin was initially unknown. After the takeover of Crimea, went to the
Donbas region of eastern Ukraine where
a conflict started between
Ukrainian government and pro-Russian forces. With their help, the pro-Russian forces were able to destabilize government security forces in the region, immobilize operations of local government institutions, seize ammunition stores and take control of towns. The Wagner Group PMCs reportedly took part in the
June 2014 Il-76 airplane shoot-down at
Luhansk International Airport The PMCs acted mostly in the LPR. while unit members of the commanders believed it was the LPR authorities who were behind the killings. Wagner left Ukraine and returned to Russia in autumn of 2015, with the start of the
Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War. Some of the men belonged to Wagner, according to the
Janes company. In the end, Plotnitsky resigned and LPR security minister
Leonid Pasechnik was named acting leader "until the next elections." Plotnitsky reportedly fled to Russia and the LPR's People's Council unanimously approved Plotnitsky's resignation. As of October 2018, a few dozen PMCs remained in the Luhansk region, according to the SBU, to kill any people considered "undesirable by Russia".
Full-scale invasion of Ukraine since 2022 The Times reported that the Wagner Group flew in more than 400 contractors from the Central African Republic in mid- to late-January 2022 on a
mission to assassinate Ukrainian president
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and members of his government, and thus to prepare the ground for Russia to take control for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which started on 24 February 2022. A US official stated that there were "some indications" that Wagner was being employed, but it was not clear where or how much. By 3 March, according to
The Times, Zelenskyy had survived three assassination attempts, two of which were allegedly orchestrated by the Wagner Group. In late March, it was expected that the number of Wagner PMCs in Ukraine would be tripled from around 300 at the beginning of the invasion to at least 1,000, and that they were to be focused on the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. In late April, a Russian military offensive to take the remainder of the Donbas region dubbed the
Battle of Donbas was launched and Wagner PMCs took part in the
Battle of Popasna, the capture of
Svitlodarsk, the
Battle of Sievierodonetsk, During fighting near Popasna on 20 May, retired Major General
Kanamat Botashev of the
Russian Air Force was shot down while flying a
Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft, reportedly for the Wagner Group. and
2022, with a red line marking the area of actual
control by Russia on 30 September 2022 During the invasion, Wagner PMCs also trained Russian servicemen before they were sent to the frontline. From the beginning of July, inmates recruited by Wagner, including Prighozin personally, in Russian prisons started participating in the invasion of Ukraine. The inmates were offered 100,000 or 200,000 rubles and
amnesty for six months of "voluntary service", or 5 million for their relatives if they died. On 5 January 2023, the first group of 24 prisoners recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine finished their six-month contracts and were released with full amnesty for their past crimes. During the
Battle of Bakhmut in late September, senior Wagner commander
Aleksey Nagin was killed. Nagin previously fought with Wagner in Syria and Libya, and before that took part in the
Second Chechen War and the
Russo-Georgian War. He was posthumously awarded the title of
Hero of the Russian Federation. On 22 December, United States National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby claimed that around 1,000 Wagner fighters were killed in fighting at
Bakhmut during the previous weeks, including some 900 recruited convicts. Ukrainian soldiers and former convicts
prisoners of war described the use of recruited convicts at Bakhmut as "bait", as poorly armed and briefly trained convicts were sent in
human wave attacks to draw out and expose Ukrainian positions to attack by more experienced units or artillery. In 2023, journalist Joshua Yaffa reported that recruited prisoners make up approximately 80% of Wagner's manpower. They are identified with the letter "K" and deployed in waves, in intervals of 15–20 minutes, whereas professional mercenaries are given the letter "A" and "held back, entering the battle only once Ukrainian defenses had been softened." Hundreds of Russian and Ukrainian troops were killed in the
Battle of Soledar. Several days later, Wagner captured Klishchiivka, south of Bakhmut, after which they continued advancing west of the settlement. , Republic of
Tatarstan, Russia, May 2024 A US estimate mid-February 2023, put the number of Wagner PMC casualties in the invasion at about 30,000, of which about 9,000 killed. The US estimated that half of those deaths had occurred in fighting for Bakhmut since the middle of December, with 90 percent of Wagner fighters who had been killed since December being convicts. On 1 May 2023, the US updated its estimate of Wagner casualties, with 10,000 fighters killed and 40,000 wounded since 1 December 2022 alone, again in fighting for Bakhmut. Concurrently, the
UK Ministry of Defence estimated that convicts recruited by Wagner had experienced a casualty rate of up to 50 percent. On 19 July 2023, Prigozhin announced the Wagner Group would no longer fight in Ukraine. On 27 September 2023, the
Ukrainian military reported that around 500 Wagner Group fighters returned to fight in
Donetsk Oblast as part of the
2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive and as part of the group's redeployment in Ukraine for the first time since its failed rebellion against the Russian military establishment in June. Wagner PMCs were involved in both Palmyra offensives in
2016 and
2017, as well as the
Syrian Army's
campaign in central Syria in the summer of 2017 and the
Battle of Deir ez-Zor in late 2017. They were in the role of
frontline advisors,
fire and movement coordinators, and "
shock troops" alongside the Syrian Army. Sources said Wagner group losses were anywhere between 10 and 200. Subsequently, the Wagner Group took part The whole Eastern Ghouta region was captured by government forces on 14 April 2018, effectively ending the near 7-year rebellion near Damascus. The PMCs also took part in the Syrian Army's
offensive in northwestern Syria that took place in mid-2019. As of late December 2021, Wagner PMCs were still taking part in military operations against ISIL cells in the Syrian desert. On 15 March 2023, the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 266 Russian PMCs were killed in Syria during the civil war.
Africa The Wagner Group has been active in Africa since 2017. It has provided military support, security and protection to several African governments. In return, Russian and Wagner-linked companies have been given privileged access to those countries' natural resources, such as rights to gold and diamond mines, while the Russian military has been given access to strategic locations such as airbases and ports. This has been described as a kind of
state capture, whereby Russia gains influence over those states and they become dependent on it. Wagner Group PMCs arrived in Madagascar to provide security for then-president
Hery Rajaonarimampianina in the
2018 Malagasy presidential election. In early August 2019, the Wagner Group received a contract with the government of Mozambique to provide technical and tactical assistance to the
Mozambique Defense Armed Forces (FADM). At least 200 PMCs and military equipment arrived in Mozambique to fight
an Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado Province which started on 5 October 2017. In a September 2023, New York Times opinion piece, American national security expert, Sean McFate, presented Yevgeny Prigozhin's operation of the Wagner Group in Africa as a template for mercenary money-making or "a blueprint for wannabe mercenary overlords to follow". The model is to find "conflict markets", a state with instability ("political rivalries, post-colonial grievances and short on rule of law") and natural resources. By the following year, the Wagner Group in Africa was merged into the 'Africa Corps'. According to the French
Le Monde newspaper, its name referenced the
Nazi German Afrika Korps of World War II. The PMCs were sent to Sudan to support it militarily against South Sudan and protect gold, uranium and diamond mines. Following Omar al-Bashir's
overthrow in a coup d'état on 11 April 2019, Russia continued to support the
Transitional Military Council (TMC) that was established to govern Sudan, as the TMC agreed to uphold Russia's contracts in Sudan's defense, mining and energy sectors. This included the PMCs' training of Sudanese military officers. The Wagner Group's operations became more elusive following al-Bashir's overthrow. They continued to mostly work with Sudan's
Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Wagner was said to be linked to the Deputy Chairman of the TMC and commander of the RSF, Gen.
Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. In April 2020, the Wagner-connected company "Meroe Gold" was reported to be planning to ship personal protective equipment, medicine, and other equipment to Sudan amid the
coronavirus pandemic. Three months later, the United States sanctioned the "M Invest" company, as well as its Sudan subsidiary "Meroe Gold" and two individuals key to Wagner operations in Sudan, for the suppression and discrediting of protesters.
Central African Republic ,
Central African Republic, May 2019 In 2018, the Wagner Group deployed its personnel to the CAR, to protect lucrative mines, support the CAR government, and provide close protection for the president,
Faustin-Archange Touadéra. By May 2018, it was reported that the number of Wagner PMCs in the CAR was 1,400, while another Russian PMC called Patriot was in charge of protecting VIPs. By 2021, the situation in the CAR had deteriorated further, with rebels attacking and capturing
Bambari. In response, Russia sent an additional 300 military instructors to the country to train government forces and provide support. According to
The New York Times, a report "prepared for members of the U.N. Security Council" found Wagner forces complicit in numerous cases in the Central African Republic of "excessive force, indiscriminate killings, occupation of schools and looting on a large scale, including of humanitarian organizations." According to a 2022 joint investigation and report from
European Investigative Collaborations (EIC), the French organization
All Eyes on Wagner, and the UK-based
Dossier Center, Wagner Group has been controlling
Diamville diamond trading company in Central African Republic since 2019. According to
The New Yorker, the group also holds sway over "much of the timber industry and operates a network of gold and diamond mines", and according to "a senior US intelligence official", the CAR is now a "proxy state" of the Wagner Group. At the same time, a "French military official" complained to journalist Joshua Yaffa, "They don't really bring stability, or even fight rebel groups all that successfully. What they do is protect the government in power and their own economic interests."
Libya in November 2018 The group's presence in Libya was first reported in October 2018, when Russian military bases had been set up in
Benghazi and
Tobruk in support of Field Marshal
Khalifa Haftar, who leads the
Libyan National Army (LNA). The group was said to be providing training and support to Haftar's forces, and Russian missiles and SAM systems were also thought to be set up in Libya. By early March 2019, around 300 Wagner PMCs were in Benghazi supporting Haftar, according to a British government source. The LNA made large advances in the country's south, capturing a number of towns in quick succession, including the city of
Sabha and the
El Sharara oil field, Libya's largest oil field. Following the southern campaign, the LNA launched an offensive against the Government of National Accord (GNA)-held capital of Tripoli, but the offensive stalled within two weeks on the outskirts of the city due to stiff resistance. By mid-November, the number of Wagner PMCs in Libya had risen to 1,400, according to several Western officials. The US Congress was preparing bipartisan sanctions against the PMCs in Libya, and a US military drone was shot down over Tripoli, with the US claiming it was shot down by Russian air defenses operated by Russian PMCs or the LNA. An estimated 25 Wagner military personnel were killed in a drone strike in September 2020, although the Russian government denied any involvement. The GNA ultimately recaptured Tripoli in June 2020, leading to a ceasefire agreement in October 2020.
Mali in Bamako after the
2021 Malian coup d'état In September 2021, reports surfaced that an agreement was close to being finalized that would allow the Wagner Group to operate in Mali. France, which previously ruled Mali as a colony, was making a diplomatic push to prevent the agreement being enacted. Since late May 2021, Mali has been ruled by a
military junta that came into power following
a coup d'état. The United Kingdom,
European Union and Ivory Coast also warned Mali not to engage in an agreement with the Wagner Group. Still, on 30 September, Mali received a shipment of four
Mil Mi-17 helicopters, as well as arms and ammunition, as part of a contract agreed in December 2020. The following months, Russian military advisors arrived in the country and were active in several parts of Mali. On 5 April 2022, Human Rights Watch published a report accusing Malian soldiers and Russian PMCs of executing around 300 civilians between 27 and 31 March, during
a military operation in Moura, in the
Mopti region, known as a hotspot of Islamic militants. According to the Malian military, more than 200 militants were killed in the operation, which reportedly involved more than 100 Russians. On 28 July 2024, it was reported that "dozens" of Wagner mercenaries had been killed or injured by Tuareg rebels in
fighting at the commune of Tinzaouaten near the Algerian border in the north of Mali as they were moving in a convoy with Malian government soldiers. The Wagner Group confirmed that it suffered casualties during the battle, but did not give a death toll. On 21 November, at least seven Wagner soldiers were killed by
al-Qaeda affiliate
JNIM in an ambush on a convoy in the
Mopti region.
Torture and killings of civilians In November 2025, the BBC published an article recounting the experiences of several eyewitnesses that had come in contact with Wagner mercenaries in Mali who described being tortured, witnessing killings, and random beatings. Some Wagner members shared their atrocities on an invitation only Telegram channel, where the European Council of Foreign Relations said members were regularly posting photos and videos depicting torture, murder, rape, desecration of corpses, and cannibalism of alleged insurgents and civilians until it was shut down in the middle of 2025. The
Africa Report said it had ″infiltrated″ the channel in June 2025, finding 322 videos and 647 photos depicting atrocities including severed heads and gouged out eyes as well as posts "laced with racism". One shopkeeper described being accused by Wagner of colluding with jihadists and being forcibly taken to a hangar where he was repeatedly tortured and encountered other captives, including a
Tuareg man who said he had been detained without being told why, and an Arab man who said he had been taken while looking for his camels. The shopkeeper said that both the Tuareg man and the Arab man were beheaded in his presence, after which Wagner mercenaries brought one of the bodies closer to him to smell the blood and threaten him. The shopkeeper was released after a Wagner commander called a Malian army officer who explained that the man was not working with jihadists. An anonymous Russian source close to the Wagner Group stated that another group of PMCs had already arrived in advance of the
May 2018 presidential election. Russian ambassador to Venezuela, Vladimir Zayemsky denied the report of the existence of Wagner in Venezuela.
Belarus , July 2023 In July 2020, ahead of
the country's presidential election, Belarusian law enforcement agencies arrested 33 Wagner contractors. The arrests took place after the security agencies received information about over 200 PMCs arriving in the country "to destabilize the situation during the election campaign", according to the state-owned
Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA). The Belarusian Security Council accused those arrested of preparing "a terrorist attack".
Radio Liberty reported the contractors were possibly on their way to Sudan, citing video footage that showed Sudanese currency and a telephone card depicting
Kassala's Khatmiya Mosque among the belongings of those who had been arrested. Russia confirmed the men were employed by a private security firm, but stated they had stayed in Belarus after missing their connecting flight to Turkey and called for their swift release. The head of the Belarusian investigative group asserted the contractors had no plans to fly further to Turkey and that they were giving "contradictory accounts". The PMCs stated they were on their way to Venezuela, Turkey, Cuba and Syria. Belarusian authorities also said they believed the husband of opposition presidential candidate
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya may have ties to the detained men and launched a criminal case against him. During the contractors' detention, Russian media reported that the
Security Service of Ukraine had lured the PMCs to Belarus under the pretext of a contract for the protection of
Rosneft facilities in Venezuela. The operation's plan was to force an emergency landing of the contractor's plane from
Minsk as it flew through Ukrainian airspace and, once grounded, the PMCs would have been arrested. Later, Russian president Putin also stated that the detained men were victims of a joint Ukrainian-
United States intelligence operation. Although the Ukrainian president's chief of staff,
Andriy Yermak, denied involvement in the detentions, subsequently, a number of Ukrainian journalists, members of parliament, and politicians confirmed the operation. The failure of the operation led to firings and criminal proceedings among Ukraine's Security Service personnel, according to a Ukrainian intelligence representative using the pseudonym "Bogdan". Former Ukrainian president
Petro Poroshenko also claimed in December 2020 that he sanctioned the operation at the end of 2018. ==Possible activities==