Did Wagner Group mercenaries ever return to the battlefields of Ukraine?

In September 2023, reports began to emerge that Wagner Group mercenaries were back on the battlefields in Ukraine only months after the private military company launched a failed coup against Russian leadership.

Several hundred fighters had allegedly returned to the war according to comments from one Ukrainian military official, who revealed to Politico that the mercenaries likely wouldn't have the same impact as they did under their former leader.

Never miss a story! Click here to follow The Daily Digest.

Wagner Group mercenary soldiers were an instrumental part of Mosocw's strategy during several early battles of the war. The private military company was also very instrumental in taking the important Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. 

Former Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin stated it took 224 days to capture Bakhumt according to CNN, a statement Prigozhin made after his mercenaries had captured the last of the city's urban and surrounding areas. 

A lot would occur during the battle to capture Bakhmut to ruin relations between  Prigozhin and several high-ranking military officials in the Russian government, a situation that ultimately led to a coup by Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries against the leadership in the Kremlin. 

It was unclear if Prigozhin was hoping to remove Vladimir Putin from power at the time. But what was clear was that Prigozhin and his mercenaries were marching on Moscow to have Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov removed from their positions of power. 

“The Prigozhin affair was neither a serious coup nor a challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s authority. It was instead Prigozhin’s attempt to secure his own position in his ongoing feud with the Minister for Defence,” wrote Professor William Partlett in Pursuit. 

Prigozhin would call off his coup just 125 miles from Moscow according to Reuters and he explained that he wanted to avoid bloodshed. "Understanding ... Russian blood will be spilled on one side, we are turning our columns around,” Prigozhin said in a video.

The mercenary leader's life was spared and at the time his soldiers were given a choice to go off into exile in Belarus with Prigozhin or sign a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense according to the Associated Press. Little was heard of the soldiers until now. 

However, hundreds of Wagner Group mercenaries allegedly returned to the frontlines in Ukraine according to Colonel Serhiy Cherevatyi, the Ukrainian Spokesperson for the Eastern Group of Forces

Colonel Cherevatyi said in a statement that Ukraine detected several hundred Wagner fighters according to Reuters but noted they didn’t have any “integral…organized force.” Cherevatyi called them “pathetic remnants” with nothing good awaiting them in Ukraine. 

“Wagnerites were not hiding,” Colonel Cherevatyi explained Politico. “Maybe they thought it would scare our soldiers. In fact, that showed Russia needs new meat for the grinder.” 

“Wagner as an organization was finished in Bakhmut. Now their more fortunate soldiers are sent to Africa, where there’s more money,” Colonel Cherevatyi continued. “The less fortunate ones are back in Ukraine.”

Colonel Cherevatyi went on to tell Politico that Ukrainian intelligence used wiretapping and reconnaissance to confirm that some Wagner mercenary forces were back fighting in Donbas and said: “We know everything about them.”

On September 18th, Ukraine’s National Resistance Center reported that as few as 1000 Wagner remained in exile in Belarus. The report also claimed 200 Wagner mercenaries were serving as instructors for Belarus’ Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Defense at the time. 

Earlier reports from the National Resistance Center claimed Moscow had created a new Private Military Company in order to lure Wagner troops into Moscow’s employment but few other details or supporting evidence were provided by the group. 

CNN reported that Wagner mercenaries were back in Ukraine on September 27th after speaking with Ukrainian soldiers fighting to break Russian defenses somewhere along the frontlines in the eastern part of the country. 

“We are breaking through their line of defense here and we are hitting them well,” one of the soldiers explained to CNN, adding that Wagner forces were in the area. “They came back, they swiftly changed their commanders and returned here,” the soldier claimed.

However, Colonel Cherevatyi doesn’t think the Wagner forces that have returned to the fight in Ukraine don’t pose any risk as they had prior to their coup. “I see nothing special in their return. Wagner is no longer a powerful force,” the colonel explained. 

“Those who returned are far from being in a good fighting mood, as they know what to expect here,” Colonel Cherevatyi added. “They used to call themselves soldiers of fortune but now they are more like misfortune soldiers.”

Reports in February 2024 suggested that what remains of the Wagner Group has been rebranded into the Africa Corps, a name that was given to the group by the Russian Ministry of Defense according to The Conversation's Alessandro Arduino, who is an affiliate lecturer at King's College London. 

Never miss a story! Click here to follow The Daily Digest.

Arduino reported that Wagner forces in Africa command about 5,000 fighters who are deployed all across the continent in countries such as Libya, Mali, and Sudan.