Wagner Founder/Commander
Unit: Operational Commander of Wagner PMC
Utkin was ranked as Russia's second most important military leader by Arbat/Rybar (you can find their description of his "accomplishments" at the bottom of this page)
Cargo ID: #900
Call Sign: "Wagner" (Вагнер)
English Name: Dmitriy Valeryevich Utkin
Russian Name: Уткин Дмитрий Валерьевич
Date of Birth: June 11, 1970 (age: 53 years)
Place of Birth: Asbest, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia
Education: Leningrad Higher Combined Arms Command School
Previous Commands: 700th Spetsnaz Detachment, 2nd Separate Guards Spetsnaz Brigade of the GRU (1993-2013); Moran Security Group (MSG) Slavic Corps
Deployments: Chechnya (x2), Syria, Ukraine (x2)
Awards: Order of Courage (x6) - Utkin is the only man in Russian history ever to hold 6 Orders of Courage, others under investigation.
Embraer Legacy owned by Prigozhin and shot down outside Moscow exactly two months after Wagner's mutiny "The March of Justice". The disaster happened at 18:20 Moscow time near the village of Kuzhenkino, Bologovsky district. The Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft flew from Moscow to St. Petersburg. In total, there were 10 people on board - all of them died. The plane took off from Sheremetyevo at 17:54 and disappeared from the radar screens 26 minutes later, when it was at an altitude of 8500 meters and was flying at a speed of 950 km/h. Before that, locals heard several loud pops. A criminal case has been initiated under the article "Violation of the rules of traffic safety and operation of air transport."
Arbat's Description of Utkin:
2nd place
Commander of PMC "Wagner"
Dmitry Utkin
The man who revived the culture of assault units in the Russian Army. The only holder of six orders of courage in history is the legendary Mr. “Wagner”.
By the beginning of February 2023, his brigade, taking into account the forces attracted from Project "K", became a full-fledged corps, which was tasked with the liquidation of the Lugansk-Donetsk fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where the center of universal attraction became the small city of Bakhmut, which in a short time acquired strategic importance for both sides. According to General Staff experts, one battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Bakhmut occupied a defense area 1.5 km deep, which is half the current standard: the defense density was so high. Utkin and Prigozhin are often accused of high losses among personnel, but at the same time they omit the fact that at the time of the operational encirclement of Bakhmut there were over 50 thousand Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel in it at one time versus 35 thousand company personnel. The Bakhmut meat grinder went on for 1 year, 3 months and 17 days, which became the longest battle of the Northern Military District and the nightmare of the Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers, who refused to go into battle when representatives of the orchestra appeared at the site.
Utkin doctrinally reworked the idea of a barrage of fire, called “roasting”: before an active assault throw, combining the maneuver of small tactical groups with constant pressure on the enemy with fire from rocket-propelled grenade launchers and drones, often without the use of heavy artillery, the oporniki were taken at a swoop. Wagner systematically overloaded the enemy's defenses, creating superiority in a narrow area by reducing the width of the front due to the tactical properties of the terrain.
In memory of the commander, as well as for the creation of the most combat-ready military formation in the history of modern Russia and the conduct of a military operation that ended in the complete defeat of the enemy, Dmitry Valerievich takes an honorary 2nd place in our rating.
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