By: Bowen Wang

BOOM! BANG! A war is raging between Russia and Ukraine. Russia wanted to take control of Ukraine, did not have enough soldiers. They searched for groups that would fight for them, and, after looking and looking, they finally found a group that suited them and had enough men. Who were they? They were the Wagner Group. The Wagner Group is a paramilitary organization that has fought for countries in exchange for money. They fought for the Russians until recently. However, the Russians created a law that seemed unfair to the Wagner soldiers, so they started a one-day rebellion that weakened Russia. Now they have compromised and figured out a way to solve a better way but both sides have still been weakened in many ways.

The Wagner Group, or Wagner Private Military Company, also officially known as PMC Wagner, is a Russian state-funded organization. It is a private military company containing many mercenaries as the soldiers. It is also a de facto private army of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s former close ally Yevgeny Prigozhin. The group is fighting many battles for Russia. Wagner used Russian Armed Forces infrastructure and was mostly funded by the Russian state all the way until 2023. While the group is not driven, elements of Wagner are linked to neo-Nazism and far-right extremism.

The Wagner Group began fighting against Ukraine. Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, started passing strict laws and rules for his soldiers. But a new rule that stated the Wagner Group had to fight alongside the Russian soldiers went a bit too far. The leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, became angry because the regulation meant the Wagner soldiers would not be under his control, but under the Russian military leaders’ control. In retalitation, he sent 25,000 soldiers away from the battles in Ukraine to march on to Moscow to threaten to start a rebellion and attack the country instead. But after one day of quarreling, President Putin dismantled the law, soothing the fight. Despite the rectification, Putin was still shocked by the sudden rebellion that left Russia slightly weaker.

The recent events have left both Mr. Prigozhin and Putin with weak public perceptions.