Overview

Dmitry Valerievich Utkin, known by the call signs “Wagner” or “Ninth,” was the commander and namesake of the Wagner Group.

Born on June 11, 1970, in Asbest, Sverdlovsk region, in what was then the Soviet Union, Utkin later moved to what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic with his mother following his parents’ divorce. He resided in the village of Smolino, Maloviskovsky district (now Novoukrainsky) of the Kirov region, where he completed his secondary education at school #2.

Utkin served in the Soviet Army from 1988 to 1990, then attended the Higher Combined Arms Command School in St. Petersburg from 1990 to 1994. After graduation, he served in the Second Separate Special Forces Brigade of Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) in the Pskov region, eventually becoming the commander of the 700th Separate Special-Purpose Detachment. During this period, Utkin participated in counterterrorism operations in the North Caucasus, including the First and Second Chechen Wars. He retired from the army as a lieutenant colonel in 2013, having been awarded six Orders of Courage, two Orders of Merit for the Fatherland (Third and Fourth Class), and later the Hero of the Russian Federation Gold Star medal.

Following his military career, Utkin joined the Moran Security Group and the Slavyansky Corps (also known as Slavonic Corps) in 2013, supporting the Syrian government. In 2014, he was involved in the illegal annexation of Crimea. Subsequently, Utkin cofounded the Wagner Group with Yevgeny Prigozhin, with backing from Russia’s military and security services. Under Utkin’s command, the group successfully captured the airports of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. The Wagner Group expanded its operations globally, with Utkin playing key roles in battles around Debaltseve, Ukraine, in 2015 and the capture of Palmyra, Syria, in 2016. Internal Wagner Group documents indicate that Utkin remained primarily connected to operations in Syria for most of his tenure, even as the organization began expanding into Africa.

Utkin faced sanctions from the United States, Canada, the European Union, Switzerland, Ukraine, Australia, Japan, and the United Kingdom for actions deemed to threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. These sanctions included asset freezes and travel bans. In 2023, Utkin died in a plane crash in the Tver region, Russia, along with Prigozhin and Valery Chekalov, the organization’s logistics head.