geoff: The battle for bakhmut in
eastern Ukraine has been notable
for several reasons.
Its length -- nine-plus months.
Its savagery -- tens of
thousands of Ukrainians and
Russians, mostly soldiers, may
have died there.
And for the man who's pressed
the fight for the Kremlin, the
mercenary leader yevgeny
prigozhin.
As Stephanie sy tells us,
prigozhin and his Wagner
paramilitary group are now the
tip of the spear for Russia in
Ukraine.
Stephanie: In Russian occupied
bakhmut, one man has stolen the
spotlight.
Days after declaring victory,
Wegner group chief avenue Guinea
prigozhin orders them to leave.
>> We are pulling units out of
bakhmut.
We are transferring munitions to
the military.
The military are in a tough
situation.
Stephanie: Prigozhin's private
military group has led the
fighting in the month-long
bloody battle that turned
bakhmut into a ruin.
Most of Wagner's fighters
are convicted criminals.
This video went viral of a man
recruiting personals from a
penal colony.
They were promised freedom for
six months of frontline service.
Their lives treated as a
spendable.
20,000 Wagner mercenaries were
killed in bakhmut.
>> This is a military that is so
challenged with its manpower,
with its ammunition, it has had
to turn to the use of prisoners
and turn them into what
prigozhin has called the
grinder.
Stephanie: She has been writing
a group on the -- writing a book
on the Wegner group.
>> Is a complex man, with a
complex history and very complex
ambitions.
He served a 10 year sentence for
violent crimes he committed in
St. Petersburg as a young man.
He worked in hard labor camps.
When he came out, he transformed
himself into this mafia
entrepreneur.
Stephanie: One of his first
ventures was a catering company
that fed the Kremlin.
He became known as Putin's
chef.
With the internet research
agency, a troll form that was
instrumental in Russia's
interference in the 2016 U.S.
Election.
Prigozhin has now transformed
into warlord, under the auspices
of Vladimir Putin.
He's used social media to
accelerate his brand.
Video show him overseeing
training sites.
He appeals to new recruits with
ultranationalist propaganda.
>> Sign up for Wagner's group
private company, World War III
is here.
Stephanie: He flaunts the
coffins of dead Ukrainian
soldiers.
He brazenly calls out Russia's
ministry of defense for the
death of his fighters, hurling
insults at the defense minister
and chief of staff, and calling
them out by name.
>> We have a 70% shortage of
ammunition.
Where is the ammunition?
Look at them.
Stephanie: His latest
provocative proclamation, that
Russia could lose the war and
face a revolt.
>> When you hear prigozhin
saying there's not enough
ammunition, we are not getting
the help that we need, you
should be hearing the voice of
Putin.
He says things that Putin is not
able to say politically about
what's going on with the war.
We have seen that in bold
display in recent days.
Stephanie: The Wagner group
started in 2014 as a secret arm
of Russian intelligence.
Originally made up of former
special forces soldiers, the
group was first employed to
Ukraine in 2014, during Russia's
illegal annexation of crimea.
Then, to Syria, where Russia
supports president bashar
al-assad's government.
Wagner serves as Russia's
military proxy in far-flung
areas of the world.
One journalist has reported on
Russian intelligence for over
two decades.
>> What the military
intelligence want to to do was
have a group of people
supervised by military
intelligence, but not officially
part of the Russian military,
and to be able to send these
people to Syria, to Ukraine and
to Africa and other regions.
Stephanie: Before the recent
fighting in Ukraine, Wagner left
Russian footprints across
Africa.
Spreading Moscow's influence and
feeding instability.
Researchers say there are
thousands of mercenaries in
about a dozen countries.
It has links to the ongoing
conflict in Sudan.
The U.S. Said it gave weapons to
Sudan's paramilitary faction.
It is also fueled of civil war
in the central African republic
and aided the anti-western
pro-Russian military in Mali,
accused of war crimes.
The Kremlin uses Wagner as a
tool, says new America's Candace
rondou.
>> They are important for Putin
in terms of diverting attention
away.
They fulfill the role of
circumventing sanctions, and
they turned to the Wagner's
group as the enforcer.
Exchange, they get gold, oil,
gas, things that are exportable
and can be turned into hard
dollars, which is extremely
important for Russia.
Stephanie: The war in Ukraine
helped prigozhin bring the
Wagner group out of the shadows
and grow it into a private
military empire.
>> Because of this war and
because of the ambitions of
prigozhin, quite quickly, the
group is the most visible part
of the Russian military.
Now we have billboards
advertising Wagner.
Stephanie: Despite the audacious
outburst against the Kremlin
elite, Putin needs prigozhin for
now.
>> Prigozhin is always conscious
of the fact that he's expendable
that it any time, prudent could
decide I don't need you anymore.
Your services are no longer
useful.
More importantly, you are
becoming a threat to me.
Stephanie: Make no mistake of
who was in charge, he says.
Prigozhin's power only exists at
the mercy of Putin.
I'm Stephanie sy for the pbs
newshour.
♪♪