Who are the Wagner Group?

Private Military Company (PMC) Wagner is a mercenary group headed up by Russian oligarch and formerly a close Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin.  

The group has for years acted as Putin's personal band of enforcers, though it maintains connections with Russia's foreign military intelligence agency, the GRU.

Founded in 2014, the Wagner Group got straight to work following the annexation of Crimea, arming and organising separatist groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine.