Fakel () is a private military company which is currently deployed by

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

History

Fakel was founded in 2023 by the Russian state-run gas monopoly

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐsˈprom) is a Russian State-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational Energy industry, energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. The Gazprom name is a contract ...

subsidiary

Gazprom Neft Gazprom Neft (; formerly Sibneft, ) is the third largest oil producer in Russia and ranked third according to refining throughput. It is a subsidiary of Gazprom, which owns about 96% of its shares. The company is registered and headquartered in ...

, as a more loyal alternative for the

Wagner Group The Wagner Group (), officially known as PMC Wagner (, ), is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled 2023 Wagner Group plane crash, until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Pu ...

, which at the time had just begun clashing with Russian high command on issues of supplies and tactics. The group was founded alongside two other Gazprom PMCs, Plamya and Potok. Fakel and Plamya reportedly are directly subordinate to the

Russian Ministry of Defence The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (; MOD) is the governing body of the Russian Armed Forces. The President of Russia is the Commander-in-Chief of the forces and directs the activity of the ministry. The Minister of Defence exerci ...

, while Potok joined Redut PMC, a PMC which is also controlled by the Russian MoD. Fakel, and the other

run companies, have their recruiting base as Gazprom employees, promising them that while they are away on tour in Ukraine, that their positions at work would be guaranteed for their return. A large contingent of the fighters are from Gazprom's security guards. Fakel is also the name of a bi-annual Gazprom corporate talent competition, a big festival in which teams of musical performers of all ages compete for prizes, with the logo for the competition being very similar to the logo used by the PMC. Fakel is also the name of the company's semi-professional

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

team. Although the company has no official political affiliation, several of its members support the Pravaya Rossiya far-right party led by Georg Borovikov seeking the restoration of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, which has stated that they are one of Fakel's patrons. Additional, several members of the company on

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

stated they were fighting to restore the Empire.

Yevgeny Prigozhin Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (1 June 1961 – 23 August 2023) was a Russian mercenary leader and oligarch. He led the Wagner Group, a private military company, and was a close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until launching a ...

was critical of Fakel, seeing the organization as competition for his Wagner group. Prigozhin claims that Fakel saw combat in the

Battle of Bakhmut The battle of Bakhmut was a major battle between the Russian Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ukrainian Armed Forces for control of the city of Bakhmut, during the eastern Ukraine campaign, a theatre of the Russian invasion of Uk ...

, where they were tasked with covering Wagner's flanks, and failed to do so resulting in a successful Ukrainian flanking maneuver that resulted in a large amount of Wagner casualties. Prigozhin claimed the unit had poor training and supplies, and a lack of any "tactical-level commanders." The unit has also seen combat in the

Battle of Soledar The battle of Soledar was a series of military engagements in and around the urban-type settlement of Soledar during the Battle of Donbas (2022), battle of Donbas in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces began an offensive on 3 August ...

References

{{reflist Military units and formations of Russia in the Russian invasion of Ukraine Paramilitary organizations based in Russia Private military contractors Pro-Russian militant groups Russian mercenaries 2023 establishments in Russia Military units and formations established in 2023

History

See also

References