By Galina Korol | 2026-04-21

They were the Kremlin's most feared fighters -- battle-hardened mercenaries who crushed dissent across three continents. Now some of them are pointing their weapons the other way.

Former fighters from the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) have been joining Ukraine's Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), the unit that operates under Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR).

According to the RVC's chief of staff, the men crossing over are driven not by money, since they could earn more staying in the system, but by something harder to manufacture: a change of conviction.

"They saw how their homeland betrayed the ideals that once led them to join the PMC, and decided their place was on the side of truth -- with the RVC," Alexander, the RVC chief of staff with the callsign "Fortuna," told Kontur.

An experiment nobody guaranteed

The experiment started in the summer of 2023. The Ukrainian military leadership decided that men who had long served as the Kremlin's "iron fist" should not only voluntarily integrate into units fighting for Ukraine but also turn their weapons against their former employers.

Denis Kapustin, known as "White Rex," commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, did not pretend he was comfortable with it.

"I can't say I was thrilled that this experiment was going to happen, let alone within the ranks of the RVC," he said in an April 2 interview with journalist Yuri Dud on the "vDud" YouTube channel.

The questions were stark.

"Would he direct missiles at us? Would he shoot me in the back of the head? Would he set our ammo depot on fire? Or would he be a truly great warrior, take all that Wagner military experience and baggage, multiply it and become a super-soldier?" Kapustin said.

The first former Wagnerite to join was Vladislav Izmailov, callsign "White." He had been captured on the Bakhmut front in Donbas and made his final decision to switch sides while sitting on an exchange bus, waiting to be sent back to Russia.

"Actually, Vlad wasn't just our first Wagner fighter, but the first prisoner of war in general to join us," Fortuna said. Former Wagner fighters are no longer coming through the prisoner pipeline -- those seeking out the RVC now are returning from civilian life.

Africa, resources and racketeering

Wagner's fighters did not spring from nowhere. For years, the group was an instrument of Russian foreign policy, even as Moscow officially denied its existence as a state-linked military organization.

Fortuna noted that when the full-scale invasion began, most of the "old guard" Wagnerites were deployed in Africa.

"They pulled instructors or commanders from there to Ukraine, but for the bulk of the actual fighting, they recruited from colonies and prisons across the Russian Federation," he said.

Anton Zemlyanoi, senior analyst at the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, described Wagner's core function in Africa as propping up regimes loyal to Moscow. In the Central African Republic, Mali and Libya, mercenaries fought and also embedded themselves in political and resource extraction systems.

"Often it was straight-up racketeering: African mercenaries would arrive, backed by Wagner PMC, and seize the assets of various international companies," Zemlyanoi told Kontur.

Ukraine encountered Wagner much earlier.

In 2014, Ukrainian intelligence identified PMC fighters in Donbas. According to Ukraine's Security Service (SBU), they were involved in downing an Il-76 military transport that killed 49 Ukrainian paratroopers, and in battles at Donetsk Airport and Debaltseve.

Wagner's operations in Ukraine effectively ceased after the death of founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in August 2023.

Vetting, adaptation and a final exam

The RVC does not hand a weapon to a former Wagner fighter and trust to luck. Fortuna described a layered selection process.

"A colossal amount of work is done on every individual. It involves endless interviews and testing aimed at understanding a person's motivation, their internal moral standards and their psychological profile," he said.

Once inside the unit, a recruit enters an observation period. The RVC tracks how quickly he absorbs unit norms, how he interacts with others, and whether he shows antisocial tendencies. Full adaptation typically takes one-and-a-half to two months. Only then comes the first combat assignment.

"In essence, this is their final exam," Fortuna said, pointing out that the fighter is always told directly: "Your fellow soldiers will treat you based on how you prove yourself during your first combat mission."

Military correspondent and war veteran Alexey Baranovsky said the experiment has produced no public scandals or serious incidents.

"You could say the RVC knows both how to accept and how to 'reprogram' these soldiers," he said.

Money is not what brings these men in, and the RVC treats that as a meaningful signal.

"If money were important to them, they would have stayed in Africa or gone to fight in Bakhmut on the side of the Russian Armed Forces," Kapustin said. Financial incentives often keep people inside the PMC system, according to Fortuna. Joining the RVC almost always means accepting a lower income.

One RVC assault platoon commander, who uses the callsign "Wagner" and whose previous place of service Kontur is not disclosing to protect his identity, linked his decision to 2014.

"At that time, Ukraine seemed like a country of freedom and justice... Ukrainians were able to defend their freedom and achieve a change of power through force," he said.

When the full-scale invasion began, he was on assignment without reliable communications and did not learn about it for several days.

"From that day on, I finally decided I would fight on the side of Ukraine," he said. He waited for his contract to expire, researched options including surrendering through Ukraine's "I Want to Live" program, and ultimately chose the RVC.

"When I found out about the RVC, everything fell into place."

A propaganda problem for the Kremlin

The defections do not meaningfully shift the military balance. Their damage is elsewhere.

"First and foremost, it is a blow to Russian propaganda," Zemlyanoi said. The problem for the Kremlin is not the individuals themselves but what their choice represents.

"It strikes at the attempts to explain to the Russian population why this war is happening," he said.

Even as isolated cases, their effect extends beyond the individuals involved. They could influence other Russian fighters to cross over -- or at minimum, to surrender.