# Dmitry Utkin **Dmitry Utkin** (1970–2023) was the retired [[GRU]] special-forces lieutenant colonel who co-founded the [[Wagner Group]] with [[Yevgeny Prigozhin]] and commanded it in the field. The group is named after his call sign, "Wagner" — widely reported as a tribute to the composer favored by Hitler. Prigozhin was the money and the public face; Utkin was the soldier. He died beside Prigozhin in the [[Prigozhin Plane Crash]] on August 23, 2023. ## Career | Period | Role | |---|---| | Born Jun 11, 1970 | Asbest, Sverdlovsk Oblast (per passport records); spent part of his childhood in Smoline, Ukraine | | GRU service (dates disputed) | Commanded the 700th Separate Special Purpose Detachment of the 2nd Separate Spetsnaz Brigade, Pechory, Pskov Oblast; rose to lieutenant colonel. Sources give his service as 1988–2008, 1993–2013, or ending in reserve status in 2012 | | 2013 | Joins the Moran Security Group and then the Slavonic Corps, a Hong Kong-registered outfit sent to [[Syria]]; it withdrew in October 2013 after clashes with ISIS and a pay dispute | | 2014 | Wagner founded; Utkin its military commander in the [[Donbas War (2014-2022)]] and then in Syria | | Dec 9, 2016 | Photographed with [[Vladimir Putin]] at the Kremlin's Heroes of the Fatherland Day reception, as a holder of four Orders of Courage | | Jun 23–24, 2023 | Reported in a tank leading the convoy during the [[Wagner Group Mutiny]]; his exact role is unclear | | Aug 23, 2023 | Killed in the plane crash in Tver Oblast; buried Aug 31 | ## The Nazi iconography Multiple outlets — Bellingcat, RFE/RL, Global News citing the Soufan Center, the Dossier Center — have reported Utkin's SS-style tattoos on his chest and shoulders, a selfie with Nazi eagle and SS insignia, SS runes in his signature, and internal documents addressing Prigozhin as "Heil Petrovich." Some of the photographs are of uncertain origin; the pattern across independent outlets is consistent. He is also reported to have been an adherent of Rodnovery, Slavic neo-paganism. This matters for reading Russian claims to be "denazifying" Ukraine: the field commander of the Kremlin's deniable army was himself repeatedly documented wearing Nazi insignia. ## Sanctions - **US Treasury, Jun 20, 2017** — designated together with Wagner itself, as its alleged head. - **European Union, Dec 13, 2021** — listed over human-rights abuses; the EU alleges he ordered the torture and killing of a Syrian deserter in June 2017. ## See Also - [[Wagner Group]] · [[Yevgeny Prigozhin]] · [[Andrei Troshev]] · [[GRU]] - [[Wagner Group Mutiny]] · [[Prigozhin Plane Crash]] · [[Africa Corps]]