Along with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary Wagner’s second-in-command Dmitry Utkin was also killed. Utkin’s role in Wagner’s Midsummer Rebellion has remained unclear.
Killed on Wednesday Yevgeny Prigozhin was known for his defiance in public.
It was also probably the fate of the mercenary army boss. However, Wagner’s second-in-command, sitting next to him in the plane, was much more restrained.
Dmitry Utkin “camera shy”, Russian described by Bellingcat, a network of investigative journalists in 2020.
There is conflicting information about Wagner’s second man, who only appeared in public a few times.
According to some estimates, he would be the founder of the infamous mercenary army.
However, Bellingcat could find no evidence for the claim from public sources. According to the network, Wagner is a project initiated by the Russian administration, for which Utkin would have washed up to work.
The name of the payroll company is also said to be in Utkin’s handwriting. Utkin’s code name was Wagner. The name refers to the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to a personal favorite composer to Richard Wagner.
Utkin’s Nazi sympathies are reported in several sources. Bellingcat describes Utkin’s relationship with the history of the Third Reich as “obsessive”.
Even more compelling evidence are the man’s tattoos, which have been mentioned in several sources.
Utkin is said to have tattooed himself with a swastika, the lightning bolt symbol of the SS troops, and the eagle coat of arms of the Third Reich.
The eagle coat of arms tattooed on his chest and the SS symbol drawn above his collarbone can also be seen in a photo taken by Utkin of himself, which has been published in several media and has also been circulated on social media.
The American historian who shared the photo on X, or the former Twitter Marc Pitcavage points out that if Utkin were wearing an SS uniform, the SS symbol would be located almost exactly in the same place as his tattoo.
A special forces soldier born in asbestos
Death has followed Utkin since birth.
He grew up in Asbesti – a city named after the deadly building material.
Since then, Utkin, born in 1970, ended up spreading death himself. Between 1994 and 2000, he fought in both wars in Chechnya, where Russian forces committed several human rights violations.
In 1998, Utkin joined the Russian special forces, where he served at least until 2008, according to Bellingcat’s investigation.
Utkin got involved in Ukraine right at the beginning of 2014, says the independent Russian media Meduza. There he led the Wagner forces that fought in the Crimea and the Donbas region. It was reportedly Wagner’s first operation.
One of the few photos taken of him from 2016 tells about the importance of Utkin and Wagner to the Russian administration. In the picture, Utkin is posing with the president Vladimir Putin with at a time when Putin did not yet officially recognize Wagner’s existence.
In 2021, Utkin was indicted by Ukrainian authorities for violating Ukraine’s state borders.
Throughout Russia’s large-scale war of aggression, Utkin has led Wagner’s troops in Ukraine, Meduza magazine writes.
Unclear role in rebellion
Utkin’s role in Wagner has thus been central since the establishment of the mercenary army until his death.
However, the information about his part in Wagner’s armed midsummer revolt is unclear.
According to a source in the Russian occupation administration who spoke to the Reuters news agency, Utkin would have led Wagner’s column that marched towards Moscow. But the information has not been confirmed from other sources.
Utkin’s last public appearance was a speech with Prigozhin to Wagner’s troops in Belarus. The speech was published video on Telegram July 19.
In the video, Prigozhin threatens to make the army of Belarus the second most powerful in the world. It was about Prigozhin’s first appearance after the uprising.
At the end of the video, Utkin’s voice can be heard in the background.
– This is not the end.