The founder of the private mercenary company Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that his formation had completed the recruitment of prisoners sent to war with Ukraine, independent Russian media reported. Prigozhin, a pro-Kremlin businessman subject to Western sanctions, did not explain the reasons for this decision.
Russian independent media reported that a question about the recruitment of prisoners was asked by the press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin by the journalists of the live24 portal. They wrote that “a large number of prisoners report to them who claim that there has been no recruitment from penal colonies to the Wagner Group for over a month.” “Indeed, the recruitment of prisoners has been completely stopped. To those who work for us, all obligations have been fulfilled” – replied the press department of the company of the pro-Kremlin entrepreneur and founder of the Wagner Group.
Prigozhin did not explain the reasons for his decision. Earlier on some Russian Telegram channels there were reports that the Wagner Group suffered heavy losses in the fighting near the Ukrainian Donbas and may be incorporated into the Russian army.
50,000 convicts
In early February, the British Ministry of Defense announced that scale of the prisoner recruitment program to this formation it has probably greatly diminished. The peak period was between the summer and autumn of 2022, the resort reminded.
The first reports of the recruitment of prisoners by the Wagner Group appeared in the summer of last year. Independent Russian media reported at the time that Prigozhin personally came to penal colonies, offering convicts a pardon and money in return for fighting in Ukraine.
Yevgeny Prigozhin visited the wounded mercenaries of the Wagner Group being treated in St. Petersburg Reuters/Concord Press Service
The number of prisoners recruited by Prigozhin’s formation is not officially known. Olga Romanowa, head of the Sitting Ruthenia Foundation, which provides legal support to prisoners and their families, estimates that it probably reached 50,000.
At the end of January, the independent Russian portal Mediazona wrote that there are definitely fewer people willing to go to war in penal colonies. Because of the refusals, the convicts were “threatened with new sentences”.
After the annexation of Crimea
The Wagner Group was created in 2014, after Russian annexation of Crimea. Its name refers to the pseudonym of its founder Dmitry Utkin, a former military intelligence officer Russia (GRU). The mercenaries of this formation have fought and still fight in countries where armed conflicts are taking place.
Mediazona, currenttime.tv, tvn24.pl
Main photo source: Associated Press/East News