This article is a joint investigation between Nordsint and Verstka Media. Verstka’s investigation is available at Verstka.media
The official employment channel of the Wagner Group, also known as PMC Wagner, has published about 18 messages advertising recruitment of mercenaries for operations in African countries. Nordsint, together with Verstka Media have established the identities of those responsible for recruiting mercenaries to be sent to Africa as well as their personal histories.
How Recruitment is Organized
Following a one year hiatus, the PMC Wagner Group has resumed the recruitment of mercenaries to be sent to Africa. Previously, in March 2023, recruitment was suspended due to the Wagner Group’s participation in the war in Ukraine.
According to posts in Telegram channels and chats related to the Wagner Group, representatives are recruiting fighters for participation in operations in Mali. In mid-February, accounts associated with the group reported that Colonel Assimi Goïta, in power in Mali, extended the contract with the Wagner Group for placement in the country.
Nordsint and Verstka Media discovered that recruits of the group are being used to form assault squads, including one for unmanned aerial vehicles, which according to chat rooms related to the Wagner Group are lacking in number in Africa. Additionally, the recruitment is also carried out among residents of Belarus.
“The smartest ones will be assigned to the UAV squad. Those who are slightly less smart – to the assault squad,” told one of the recruiters to potential “employees” of the group in a chat, according to Verstka.
The Wagner Group is recruiting men aged 22 to 50 years old, promising a contract of at least six months, a salary starting from 240,000 rubles, and life insurance. A similar contract was offered to mercenaries fighting in Ukraine. Potential recruits need to provide certificates from a psychiatrist and a narcologist as well as certificates confirming the absence of hepatitis, syphilis and HIV. Recruits must also provide ECG results, undergo oral cavity sanitation as well as a certificate of no criminal record, a military ID and international and internal passports.
A correspondent from Verstka under the guise of a potential recruit contacted a representative with the call sign “Serg”. “Regarding documents, if some certificates take too long to obtain, write to me, we will solve everything. Ideally, to get everything done within two weeks, we plan to send the next group in mid-April,” he said. – “So, you prepare the whole package of documents and inform me, I will inform you the point to arrive.” Another recruiter with the call sign “Freizer” said that many are willing to join the ranks of the Wagner Group in Africa. “They don’t want to go to Ukraine anymore and become two hundred (Russian military terminology for fatalities). And in Africa, there are no such risks. Plus, the weather is nicer,” he added.
Verstka also revealed that potential recruits of Wagner who want to go to Africa have problems obtaining a passport and are sometimes banned from leaving the country. A ban can be issued, for example, due to unpaid debts. They themselves assure that they can “solve the problems,” but the process often drags on for weeks or months.
“We’ve been f***ng calling you for two weeks. In the morning, in the afternoon, at night you’ve been calling me from the Far East, f***ing my head with all sorts of incomprehensible questions! I’ve been communicating with you. Now there are two f***ing people ready to go or what?! Let’s respond faster,” said a recruiter in a message to a chat room.
Established Recruiters
In four cases, Nordsint and Verstka were able to establish the likely names of “remote destination” and “long distance” recruiters, terms the Wagner Group frequently uses to refer to countries in Africa. When these recruiters were contacted, they neither confirmed nor denied their identities, or did not respond to messages at all.
Schindler
One of the first in the list of recruiters for the “African direction” in ads posted by Wagner is an individual using the call sign “Schindler.” He represents the ninth assault squad in Africa. His phone number is registered in the Krasnodar region, and he also opened several cards in Alfa-Bank. These cards belong to 34-year-old Sergei Mishako, a resident of the town of Apsheronsk, Krasnodar Krai.
According to leaked databases, Mishako in 2011 was listed as an employee of the administration of the Krasnodar region. In 2015, he was brought to administrative responsibility for violation of public order in Gelendzhik for swearing in the street. In 2020 Mishako worked in a private security organization called “LLC PSO YUGALIANS”. After the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a man with the same name was mentioned in a news report as an instructor for initial military-patriotic training at the Apsheron Cossack cordon.
Batist
The recruiter with the callsign “Batist” represents the 1st assault squad of the Wagner Group. He is likely one of the experienced members of the group who joined it even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, serving with the group in 2018.
The phone number of Batist provided by the Wagner Group is found in 2022 leaks from Russian courier service SDEK. They list an individual by the name of Ruslan Chlalyan. A person with the same name and patronymic was released in a 2019 list by the Ukrainian SBU as a combatant who was present in Sudan as part of a Wagner Group contingent. The list was verified by investigative group Bellingcat. The same individual is also listed on the Ukrainian Myrotvorets center website.
Freizer
A recruiter with the call sign “Freizer” is responsible for the 8th assault squad of the Wagner Group. The phone number listed in recruitment advertisements is registered to a 44-year-old Moscow resident named Viktor Zaitsev. A Telegram account registered to the same number and name of Zaitsev has existed for more than seven years. In addition, Zaitsev’s address appears in multiple leaks. Zaitsev’s deleted pages in VKontakte and Instagram, as well as an Alfa-Bank account, are registered to the same phone number. Judging by published advertisements, Zaitsev himself was fond of Thai boxing and mixed martial arts. Advertisements talked about the sale of gloves and protective equipment. At the same time, a man with the same name, date of birth and address is included in the list of anti-creditors and is mentioned in criminal reports as a “left-handed drug user.”
Serg
A recruiter with the call sign “Serg” is recruiting for the 20th assault squad. His Telegram account is linked to 42-year-old native of Kyrgyzstan Sergei Klimov. The account was previously registered to Klimov’s number.
According to data leaks, Kilmov obtained Russian citizenship in 2001. Until about 2010, he lived and worked in the Sverdlovsk region and then Moscow. In the period from 2012 to 2018, according to the register of legal entities, he managed his own cleaning companies – LLC “Company B2B” and LLC “Spetsuservices”. During the same period, one of the company’s employees sued Klimov for non-payment of wages. There is no data on Klimov’s subsequent places of employment in public sources.
A man with the same name and date of birth is in the databases of anti-creditors for non-payment of loans, and has also repeatedly been charged for traffic violations. In 2006, he was deprived of his license for a year for driving into oncoming traffic.
Partially Identified Recruiters
In four other cases, Nordint and Verstka discovered certain details about recruiters, but their definitive names and areas of activity before they started working in the mercenary organization could not be entirely established. Most of them ignored Verstka’s request for an interview. Only the recruiter with the callsign “Bugur” said that he needed to first coordinate with the “Wagner security service” and stopped responding.
Bugur
A member of the group with the call sign “Bugur” is listed in the list of recruiters of the “African direction.” He is a representative of the 4th assault unit. The phone number belonging to the recruiter is registered in the Krasnodar region. It was also used in the registration of email with the domain mail.ru. The email itself turned up in at least three leaks: from two classified listing sites as well as a dating website. The email address is associated with a 36-year-old resident Dmitry Glotov, a resident of Armavir city. The leaks show that the man is on the lists of anti-creditors. Additionally, Golotov had a criminal record, but the exact nature of the charges couldn’t be determined as the criminal case data wasn’t electronically published. In 2010, Glotov worked in the administration of the Krasnodar region. His last known place of employment as of 2020 is the Krasnodar-based LLC “RK”, engaged in trading of hand tools.
Nordsint and Verstka were unable to determine if Golotov currently uses the same phone number.
Pavan
A recruiter with the call sign “Pavan” is recruiting volunteers for the UAV unit of the Wagner Group. Pavan’s number was previously linked to the VKontakte page of Nabi Aliklichev, an auto mechanic from Khasavyurt. However, it was not possible to definitively establish who owns the number.
Pavan runs his own Telegram channel called GarlemOnline, which was previously named Radio Wagner. In it, Pavan publishes news articles about the war, as well as his own posts with speculations on current events. In a recent post, the recruiter was outraged by the number of migrants at Moscow’s Sadovod market.
In the description of the channel he indicated that according to the Myrotvorets center, he was “recognized as a militant whose actions have signs of crimes against the national security of Ukraine, peace, human security and international law.”
When contacted by Verstka, Pavan inquired “Will you make an advertisement for my Telegram channel?” and refused to comment further.
Ekat
An individual using the call sign “Ekat” is responsible for recruitment in the ranks of the 13th assault squad. The recruiter’s number listed in the Wagner Group’s advertisements has been registered to accounts in Sberbank and Alfa Bank under different names. In addition, the number is linked to a page on VKontakte, belonging to a resident of the city of Krasnoturyinsk in the Sverdlovsk region. A year ago, an account on the Askona mattress website under the name of Vladimir, as well as an email containing the callsign “Ekat” was registered to the same number. Nonetheless, it was not possible to conclusively establish an identity.
Paketik
A recruiter with the call sign “Paketik” is responsible for recruiting of the 5th Assault Squad. His phone number is linked to 44-year-old Ostap Petukhov. A Telegram account linked to this number has existed for more than six years. Information about any other persons with the same combination of first name, last name and patronymic is not in any leaked databases, although a passport was issued in his name in 2020. This suggests that the man’s identity may be fake.
Activity in Africa
Verstka was told by a source in the Russian Ministry of Defence that since mid-February, several thousand Russian military personnel have been transferred from Ukraine to Africa – some under the guise of fighters from PMCs, others directly from the Ministry of Defense.
According to the source, they, among other activities, are training local military personnel and recruits from private military campaigns. Verstka’s source clarified that one of the bases is located near the city of Benghazi in Libya, but did not specify the exact location. From there, mercenaries are transported to countries in other parts of the African continent.
Members of a Wagner relative group chat mentioned the transfer of mercenaries from Ukraine to Africa.
“Has anyone had cases that went to fight in Ukraine, but ended up in distant directions?”, – asked one of the chat participants. Other participants answered that they had not encountered such situations. The woman refused to talk about the story in more detail.
According to information from the chats of relatives of Wagner Group members, several groups of “volunteers” have already been sent on assignments to “distant directions.” Their relatives share information about what powers of attorney need to be formalized before the departure of their loved ones, what equipment to pass on to the next group, and how often mercenaries contact their relatives. Additionally, Verstka discovered that chats with relatives of deceased fighters have appeared. In these chats, the relatives of mercenaries try to find out the circumstances of their relatives’ deaths, find their lost belongings, and also express condolences to each other.

Recruitment advertisement of the Wagner Group
The Wagner Group has been active in certain African countries since at least 2017. They provide military support, supply weapons, conduct political consulting, and engage in the extraction of natural resources. Prigozhin’s main income reportedly originated from exporting gold, diamonds, and timber, estimated at a value of $250 million by the Financial Times. Reports indicate the Wagner Group’s involvement in human rights violations in Mali, despite claims of improving the security situation. After Prigozhin’s death in 2023, their operations in Africa appear to continue.
Prigozhin himself was in Africa a few days before his death in August 2023. At the time he stated that the Wagner Group makes Africa “even freer” and not only “plagues ISIS, Al-Qaeda and other bandits” but also searches for natural resources. After his death, media networks questioned what might happen to Prigozhin’s organizations in Africa. Judging by open source information and publications in Wagner affiliated Telegram channels, their activities have not stopped.
Illustrations by: Michael Scarn/Майкл Скарн
Article by: Verstka Media and Ryan (Nordsint lead researcher)