state victoria nuland said in january the company was using its access to gold and other resources in africa to fund operations in ukrainesome russian media alleged that wagner was involved in the 2018 killings of three russian journalists in central african republic who were investigating the groups activities the slayings remain unsolvedwestern countries and un experts have accused wagner mercenaries of human rights abuses throughout africa including in central african republic libya and maliin 2021 the european union accused the group of serious human rights abuses including torture and extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions and killings and of carrying out destabilizing activities in central african republic libya syria and ukrainevideo has surfaced purporting to show some of the activities that have contributed to wagners fearsome reputationa 2017 online video showed a group of armed people reportedly wagner contractors torturing a syrian and beating him to death with a sledgehammer before mutilating and burning his body russian authorities ignored requests by the media and rights activists to investigatein 2022 another video showed a former wagner contractor beaten to death with a sledgehammer after he allegedly fled to the ukrainian side and was repatriated despite public outrage and demands for an investigation the kremlin turned a blind eyewagner took an increasingly visible role in the war as regular russian troops suffered heavy attrition and lost territory in humiliating setbacksprigozhin toured russian prisons to recruit fighters promising pardons if they survived a halfyear tour of frontline duty with wagnerin the interview in may he said he had recruited 50000 convicts about 10000 of whom where killed in bakhmut a similar number of his own fighters have died therehe said he had 50000 men at his disposal in the best times with about 35000 on the front lines at all times he didnt say whether these numbers included convictsthe us has estimated wagner had about 50000 personnel fighting in ukraine including 10000 contractors and 40000 convicts a us official says nearly half of the 20000 russian soldiers killed in ukraine since december have been wagners troops in bakhmutthe us assesses that wagner is spending about 100 million a month in the fight in december washington accused north korea of supplying weapons including rockets and missiles to the russian company in violation of un security council resolutions both wagner and north korea denied the reportsif the us accusation is true wagners reach for north korean weapons may reflect its longrunning dispute with the russian military leadership which dates to the companys creationprigozhin claimed full credit in january for capturing the donetsk region saltmining town of soledar in ukraine and accused the russian defense ministry of trying to steal wagners glory he has repeatedly complained the russian military failed to supply wagner with sufficient ammunition to capture bakhmut and threatened to pull out his mentroops purported to be wagner contractors in ukraine recorded a video in which they showered the chief of the russian militarys general staff gen valery gerasimov with curses and accusations of