Mercenaries come out of the shadows

Three billboards in the Ural city of Ekaterinburg shine a light on what was once one of Russia’s most shadowy organisations, the private military contractor Wagner.

“Motherland, Honour, Blood, Bravery. WAGNER,” one of the posters reads. Another, which locals said had appeared in early July, depicts three men in uniform next to the words “Wagner2022.org”.

The posters are testament to the transformation of the group since Moscow launched its invasion, from a secretive mercenary organisation to an increasingly public extension of Russia’s military.

“It looks like they have decided that they will no longer try to hide their existence,” said Denis Korotkov, a former Novaya Gazeta journalist.

Wagner was established in 2014 to support pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. The US and others say it is funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman closely tied to Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin, who is under western sanctions, denies any links to the group.

Wagner played a prominent role fighting alongside the Russian army in support of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and has been spotted in several African nations where Russia has strategic and economic interests. It has been repeatedly accused of war crimes and human rights abuses.

On paper, it doesn’t exist, with no company registration, tax returns or organisational chart to be found. Russia’s senior leaders have repeatedly denied any connections between Wagner and the state.

In March, British intelligence said about 1,000 Wagner mercenaries had gone to Ukraine. The group’s role in the war appears to have grown after Moscow refocused its efforts on the east after its failure to capture the capital, Kyiv.

Wagner is believed to have played a central part in the capture of Popasna in May and Lysychansk in June, in the eastern Luhansk region. Last month, British intelligence said Wagner had played a role in the capture of the Vuhlehirsk power plant in Ukraine’s east.

Wagner last month received its biggest recognition to date when Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia’s biggest tabloid, featured the storming of the Vuhlehirsk plant on its front page, while the group’s website boasted: “Go on your first combat campaign with living industry legends!”

When the Guardian emailed the address posted on Wagner’s website, a person claiming to represent the group said it had started its recruitment campaign because “support for our company is colossal, and there are many who want to join”.

The site has since been taken down by Hostinger, an internet domain provider in Lithuania, which said the site had been “cloaking” itself with fake identities, virtual private networks and crypto payments.

Wagner also appears to have established recruitment centres in more than 20 cities, posting social media ads offering soldiers more than 240,000 roubles ($4,000) a month, several times more than regular soldiers’ typical wages.

Analysts say Russia’s reliance on groups such as Wagner shows the extent to which the regular army, which has lost as much as a third of its combat strength, has struggled to achieve its goals in Ukraine.

Marat Gabidullin, a former Wagner commander, told the Guardian in an earlier interview that his troops had worked closely with Russia’s defence ministry when fighting in Syria.

That relationship appears to have deepened since the start of the war in Ukraine. According to an investigation by the independent Meduza outlet, the Russian ministry of defence has largely taken control of Wagner’s recruitment networks.

Korotkov said: “The defence ministry has largely co-opted Wagner, and it now looks more like one coordinated group.”

Some say the latest recruitment push threatens to diminish the group’s overall military level.

“Wagner is lowering its recruitment standards and hiring convicts and formerly blacklisted individuals,” said the UK’s Ministry of Defence in a briefing last month.

“Even before the conflict, less than 30% of the soldiers in Wagner were actual professionals,” said Gabidullin. “Now, the group will mostly consist of a bunch of amateurs … The circus that is Russia continues.”

The defence ministry has largely co-opted Wagner