The number of Wagner Group personnel has decreased tenfold over the past year. The remaining members are located in Belarus and Africa.
According to the UK Ministry of Defence on X (formerly Twitter), the group has become significantly fragmented since the death of key leaders, including its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, who perished in a plane crash likely caused by an onboard explosion. Many surviving high-ranking figures have left the group since then.
Andrey "Sedoy" Trochev, former CEO of the Wagner Group, has joined the Russian Ministry of Defence, likely as part of the "Redut" PMC, tasked with forming "volunteer corps" for the war in Ukraine.
Alexander "Ratiibor" Kuznetsov, former commander of Wagner's 1st Assault Squad, has joined the Chechen "Akhmat" special forces unit. Boris "Zombie" Nizhevenok, former commander of Wagner's 3rd Assault Squad, led the "Vostok-V" unit starting May 2024.
According to British intelligence, numerous Wagner veterans have followed these and other former Wagner leaders, leaving the group.
Recall that Wagner's plane crashed on August 23, 2023, killing ten people, including Yevgeny Prigozhin.
