The war in Ukraine is seen mainly as a confrontation between two national militaries: the invading Russian armed forces and the defending Ukrainian troops, both backed and supplied by international allies.

Yet there is one shadowy but significant actor in the Ukraine war that does not fit this definition. It is the Wagner Group, a supposedly private military company (PMC) that now has on its payroll an army of some 40,000 “hired guns” – many former criminals – to fight inside Ukraine on Russia’s behalf.