Dimitriy “Wagner” Utkin is a former Russian military intelligence (GRU) officer. According to [EU](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.LI.2021.445.01.0010.01.ENG&toc=OJ%3AL%3A2021%3A445I%3ATOC) he is the founder of the Wagner Group and responsible for coordinating and planning operations for the deployment of Wagner Group mercenaries across various countries. In his commanding position within the Wagner Group, he is responsible for serious human rights abuses committed by the group, which include torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings.

Utkin participated in the Syrian expedition of the “Slavic Corps” in 2013. In 2014, he worked in Crimea during annexation. In May 2014, together with a group of veteran instructors near Rostov-on-Don, he organized a training base for fighters and became commander of his own unit, which, according to his new call sign, was given the conventional name “PMC Wagner”. In the summer of 2014, he took an active part in the battles near Metalist in the LNR, took Luhansk airport, and in January 2015 participated in the disarmament of the Odessa police in Krasnodon, then in the capture of Debaltseve.

Utkin is a supporter of the ideology and aesthetics of the Third Reich and has Nazi tattoos. In 2016, Dmitry Utkin attended the celebration of Heroes of the Fatherland Day in the Kremlin as a Knight of the Four Orders of Courage, and was photographed with President Vladimir Putin and other invited guests.