Yevgeny Prigozhin: the hotdog seller who rose to the top of Putin’s war machine

After nearly a decade in prison, the Wagner group founder’s ascent was extraordinary. But where does the ceiling of his ambition lie? Some of those who knew him describe his path to power

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Group military company, addresses Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asking him to withdraw the remaining Ukrainian forces from Bakhmut to save their lives, at an unspecified location in Ukraine. Picture: Prigozhin Press Service via AP, File

At the height of Russia’s first, covert invasion of eastern Ukraine, in summer 2014, a group of senior Russian officials gathered at the defence ministry’s headquarters, an imposing Stalin-era building on the banks of the Moskva River.

They were there to meet Yevgeny Prigozhin, a middle-aged man with a shaven head and a coarse tone whom many in the room knew only as the person responsible for army catering contracts.