Have we seen the last of the Wagner Group?

Three weeks after marching on Moscow, the Wagner Group has seemingly been withdrawn from the battlefield in Ukraine, according to the Pentagon. Pentagon press secretary Patrick Ryder said there was evidence to suggest that the 25,000-strong mercenary group was not ‘participating in any significant capacity in support of combat operations in Ukraine’.

The Pentagon’s statement follows weeks of rumours and speculation about how successfully Vladimir Putin is dealing with the fallout of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion. Many Kremlin-watchers expected the President to crack down hard on the Wagner leader – and were subsequently puzzled when Prigozhin was allowed to nominally retreat into self-imposed exile in Belarus. 

But several days after the mutiny Prigozhin was spotted, not in Belarus, but in St Petersburg, entering Wagner HQ. Questions remained over whether Putin would try to keep the Wagner Group fighters on the frontline in Ukraine, not least because they have proved useful in recent months at propping up Russia’s faltering offensive in areas such as Bakhmut.