Valery Yevgenyevich Chekalov (10 January 1976-23 August 2023) was head of logistics of the Wagner private military company.
Biography[]
Valery Chekalov was born in the Russian SFSR in 1976, and he served in the Russian Navy before becoming a member of the Wagner Group private military company. Chekalov became a close confidant of Yevgeny Prigozhin, controlling several Prigozhin-linked front companies that managed mercenaries, secured weapons, and ran Wagner's business operations in Syria and Africa. Chekalov, Prigozhin, and Wagner co-founder Dmitry Utkin were killed in a plane crash in Tver Oblast in August 2023; Vladimir Putin's government was suspected of sabotaging the plane to eliminate the Wagner leadership in one fell swoop and force Wagner to integrate into the Russian Army.