This is the Guardian.

Today, how you've gained a pregoation went from selling hot dogs to the leader of an army of Russian prisoners in Ukraine.

Last week, Russia had a rare victory in Ukraine.

Russia's defense ministry is claiming that it has taken control of the mining town of Soledad in eastern Ukraine.

I want to emphasize that in the Sturmia Solidar, there were no other divisions except the fighters of Cheva Kavagin.

But the man speaking, announcing his forces had taken the town of Soledad and celebrating it with his fighters, isn't a Russian soldier, he's not even a member of the government.

His name is Yvgeny Pregosian.

He's this notorious kind of private military contractor.

Positioning himself as both a savior of the war for Moscow and the critical chief of Russia's military establishment.

He said that he had single-handedly taken that city with his own private army.

And what's really incredible is that the fighters he leads in Ukraine, the Wagner group, they mostly convicted criminals,

expendable men recruited straight from jail and used as cannon fodder.

By some estimates there are up to 50,000 Wagner mercenaries fighting in Ukraine, according to Western officials they make up a staggering 25% of total Russian combatants.

And army within an army.

The fight over Ukraine this past year and this past decade has changed so many lives.

But for some it's been an opportunity.

Pregosian was Putin's caterer.

Now he sits at the top of a group, the US says is a global criminal empire, with a 50,000 strong private army inside Ukraine.

He spent years denying any connection to mercenary activity and went to vast lengths to threaten to sue anyone who suggested that he had any connection.

But not anymore.

Over months of reporting, Guardian journalists have built up the fullest picture yet of who Evgeny Pregosian is, how he got to this point.

And what he may do next.

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