UK intelligence: Wagner Group maintains around 5,000 personnel after Prigozhin's death

The UK Defense Ministry said this in an intelligence update on the X social media platform, Ukrinform reports.

"Numerous veteran Wagner personnel have followed these and other former Wagner leaders in transferring from the group. In comparison to its peak personnel count of around 50,000 in 2023, Wagner now highly likely maintains around 5,000 total personnel across its residual deployments in Belarus and Africa," the ministry said.

According to the update, today, August 23, is the first anniversary of the death of several key Wagner Group leaders, including its owner Yevgeny Prigozhin and founder Dmitry 'Wagner' Uktin, who were killed in a plane crash almost certainly due to an explosion on board.

"Since then, the Wagner Group has become increasingly fragmented, with many surviving senior figures leaving the group," the ministry added.

On June 23, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, announced a démarche against the Russian military leadership, in particular against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. On June 24, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko held talks with Prigozhin, allegedly at Putin’s request. Following the talks, the private army's leader announced he had ordered his forces to stop the march and return to their field camps.

Later, on August 23, key Wagner Group leaders were killed in a plane crash.