[8][9] Dmitry Valerievich Utkin was born on 11 June 1970 in Asbest, a village in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, Soviet Union.

[10] During his early childhood, Utkin and his mother relocated to the village of Smoline in Kirovohrad Oblast in Soviet Ukraine, where he was raised.

", wore a Wehrmacht field cap around Wagner training grounds, and sometimes signed his name with the lightning bolt insignia of the SS.

The same year, senior Moran Security Group managers were involved in setting up the Hong Kong-based Slavonic Corps,[24] which headhunted contractors to "protect oil fields and pipelines" in Syria during its civil war.

[19] Russia's Federal Security Service in November 2013 arrested some members of the Slavonic Corps for illegal mercenary activity.

[3] Utkin and the Wagner Group, as well as several veterans of the Slavonic Corps, were seen in Crimea in February 2014 and then in Donbas, where they fought for the pro-Russian separatists during the Russo-Ukrainian War.

[29] Turkish newspaper Yeni Şafak reported that Utkin was possibly a figurehead for the company, while the real head of Wagner was someone else.

[33] Dmitry Peskov, the Press Secretary for the Russian President, admitted that Utkin was among the invitees, but did not comment on his connection with the mercenaries.

Several images spread in social media apparently depicting armed Russian men killed during the Battle of Palmyra in March 2016.

[7] The mutiny was halted the next day when an agreement was reached: Wagner mutineers would not be prosecuted if they chose to either sign contracts with the Defense Ministry or move to Belarus.

[43] Utkin was accused of being "responsible for serious human rights abuses committed by the group, which include torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings.

[46] Utkin died in a plane crash on 23 August 2023 which also killed nine other people, including Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.