Mercenary chief and Yevgeny Prigozhin has become one of the most talked-about figures in the world over the weekend after leading .
Now, he is reportedly set to move to Belarus under a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to end the short-lived rebellion.
This is what we know about him.
Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin?
With aggressive PR, foul language and a frequent presence near the front lines, the shaven-headed Yevgeny Prigozhin is one of the most visible faces of the war in Ukraine, having recruited thousands of Russian prisoners to fight for Wagner and feuded openly with the defence ministry over military plans and ammunition supplies
Mr Prigozhin, 62, has for decades been known as "Putin's chef" due to his company's Kremlin catering contracts.
It's unclear how friendly he and Russian President Vladimir Putin were before the rebellion, but they know each other and both men were born and raised in St Petersburg.
After serving a long prison sentence in the 1980s, Mr Prigozhin started out selling hotdogs in his hometown.
He soon began to build up a stake in a chain of supermarkets and eventually opened his own restaurant and catering company.
His restaurant gained a reputation for its fine food and was soon hosting city dignitaries including then-deputy mayor Putin.
From there, the catering firm Concord began to win government supply contracts, taking its operations to a much bigger level
Did Yevgeny Prigozhin start the Wagner Group?
Mr Prigozhin admitted last September that he had founded the private military group in 2014, the year Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine.
It was his first public confirmation of a link he had previously denied and sued journalists for reporting.
The Wagner Group has fought in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic and Mali, among other countries.
The group also provided support to Russia-backed separatists who seized a chunk of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in 2014.
Last month the group seized the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after some of the war's most brutal fighting.
During the onslaught, however, Mr Prigozhin broke the taboos of Mr Putin's tightly controlled political system with foul-mouthed insults of Moscow's top brass.
Afterwards, he issued a video thanking the Kremlin, even as he launched into his favourite rant: The alleged treachery of Putin's top brass, in particular defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov.
Yevgeny Prigozhin is a former Putin ally. Source: AAP / AP
The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Mr Prigozhin for his role in Wagner.
They also accuse him of funding a troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency that Washington says tried to influence US elections.
