The Latest Breaking News from Marat Gabidullin

The Wagner leader appeared down but not out in the months after his mutiny, but his fate may have been sealed from the start

Mercenaries are ‘recovering, eating and repairing gear’, says source, as some Russian officials call for them to be disarmed

Experts analyse the past six months and predict how the conflict may evolve.

Known as Kadyrovtsy after their leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the fighters are said to be brutal and delusional.

The mysterious network of mercenaries is embracing an ever-public image as the war on Ukraine drags on.

Mercenary group does not officially exist but is playing a more public role and openly recruiting in Russia

The Wagner Group, known as "Putin's shadow army," has come to the world's attention because of the Ukraine war. Marat Gabidullin, who left Wagner after fighting in Syria, has written a book about it.

Marat Gabidullin is the first combatant from private Russian paramilitary company Wagner to break rank and talk publicly about the secretive organisation. He recounts his four years as a mercenary in eastern Ukraine and Syria in his memoir In the Same River Twice, now available in French.

The Russian military's failure to seize the Ukrainian capital was inevitable because in the preceding years they had never directly faced a powerful enemy, according to a former mercenary with the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group who fought alongside the Russian army.