War by proxy: how private military companies operate in place of states

By Olha Hembik | 2026-06-11

As the armed insurrection unfolded, people watched it in real time, horrified. It became the top story on news feeds around the world.

On June 24, 2023, a convoy of mercenaries from the Wagner private military company, helmed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, set out from the so-called zone of the special military operation on a "march of justice" to Moscow.

The march was allegedly prompted by a strike by the Russian army on the militants' base camp.

Several thousand armed people seized Rostov, advanced through Voronezh, and on the way shot down seven Russian aircraft, killing their crews.

The armed insurgents did not make it to Moscow, stopping 400 kilometers away. By that evening, after negotiations with the Kremlin, Prigozhin backed down from the mutiny, probably because he did not get military support from Russian service members.

Two months later, he died in a plane crash along with another Wagner ideologue, Dmitry Utkin, and the independent, private paramilitary entity dissolved.

In the Name of Profit

The story of Wagner is a recent example of how a private military company spirals out of control after becoming an important instrument of hybrid conflicts. But it is obviously not the last. In an environment where the world order has been shattered by new military showdowns and territorial claims, private military companies have become a force that can affect the fate of states.

They control resources and wage war in places where state armies either cannot cope or do not want to get involved.

According to the Geneva Center for Security Sector Governance, private military companies are business entities with a corresponding corporate structure.

Their activities are varied: they provide operational and logistical support, escort cargo, and help with provisioning and deliveries. But they have gained notoriety because of the services they provide with weapons in hand, as they take part in wars and military conflicts, including through work on strategic planning and intelligence.

The modern private military industry came into being in the UK in the 1960s. It was established by former special forces commanders in the British army who trained foreign armies in the art of war in the Persian Gulf countries.

Aircraft in the Arsenal

Russia has been using private military companies for the past 15 years, mainly to advance its interests abroad.

This is how Russia exerts influence in other countries: it expands its political and economic clout, gains access to resources and at the same time evades accountability in the form of international sanctions.

Russian private military companies spread widely in Ukraine in 2014, but have also been detected in the Middle East, Africa and even Latin America. Moscow deploys disinformation and propaganda to deny that it is operating on foreign soil. Russian private military companies train foreign soldiers and supply weapons to countries and groups that are under international sanctions. They also cooperate with local government forces and militants.

"I wouldn't call Russian formations private military companies. Where have you seen that you could buy an armored personnel vehicle or a plane? But these private companies have them," said Mykhailo Zhirokhov, a military expert and historian who studies local conflicts.

Zhirokhov pointed out that many Russian private military companies have been created specifically for the war with Ukraine.

They have carried out all the menial work in campaigning to bring convicts into the war, and if those convicts are insubordinate, they are punished brutally.

"The Il-76 that was shot down over Luhansk in 2014 was also the work of Wagner fighters," Zhirokhov said, referring to when the Russians destroyed a Ukrainian transport plane, killing 49 paratroopers and pilots instantly.

In 2023, Ukraine's parliament declared Wagner to be an international criminal organization. It condemned the company for committing atrocious murders in Ukraine, violating human rights and carrying out illegal operations with natural resources in Mali, the Central African Republic, Libya and Syria.

Russia's own Criminal Code outlaws the activity of Russian private military companies.

Meanwhile, Russian private military companies operate clandestinely in dozens of countries. To avoid betraying its involvement, Russia will not attempt to intervene openly.

China has chosen a similar tactic. Dozens of Chinese private military companies in around 40 countries are standing up for China's international interests, while Beijing upholds a "longstanding policy of nonintervention."

'The Dirty Work'

Fighters in private military companies are most often active in conflict regions that do not have laws regulating their activity.

Transferring the right to use armed force from a state to private military companies creates legal ambiguity because it is unclear whose jurisdiction they fall under and "how to apply international humanitarian law to the fighters," Zhirokhov said.

For a fee, these groups are willing to do the dirty work that a country's official armed forces cannot because international law prohibits it, among other reasons.

Journalists and international activists are trying to bring this problem to light.

Thanks to these efforts, many private military companies have begun to worry about their image and are practicing less flagrant violence. But this trend is not universal, the Geneva Center for Security Sector Governance says.

The use of private military companies conceals another ethical conflict. The people who join them are often veterans who went through war and did not find their place in civilian life.

"Instead of going through an extended rehabilitation, these fighters are pushed out of the community. It's hard for them to adapt to ordinary life because of PTSD and psychological trauma. The state doesn't bear any moral or material responsibility for them,' Zhirokhov said.

Governments are not obligated to provide fighters in private military companies with pension benefits, or pay for medical services or accommodation. These benefits are usually included in the contract a service member signs with the regular troops.

If one of these fighters dies, the government has no monetary obligations to their relatives.

"As cynical as this sounds, when states use private military companies, it is profitable from an economic point of view. The federal budget doesn't lose anything," Zhirokhov said.

As they are an attractive instrument of foreign policy, private military companies can weaken states' armies by drawing professionals into a more profitable niche.

In weak states, this can lead to the privatization of security.

For example, although private military companies are outlawed in Russia, local elites are now actively creating them.

In doing this they are strengthening their positions in future internal conflicts. This could mean that a major redistribution of resources in Russia could be violent and unpredictable.