The Russian mercenary group Wagner has stopped recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner group, said on Thursday.
In response to a request for comment posted on social media, Prigozhin said: “The recruitment of prisoners by the private military company Wagner has completely stopped. Now we fulfill all our obligations to those who work for us.”
It is noted that Wagner began recruiting prisoners in the summer of 2022, and Prigozhin offered the convicts a pardon if they lived in Ukraine for six months.
Over 20,000 prisoners
Wagner did not release information on how many convicts joined the war, but figures from the Russian prison service released in November showed that the country’s prison population fell by 20,000 between August and November.
In December, Reuters reported that US intelligence believes Wagner sent 40,000 convicted fighters to Ukraine.
It is noted that Wagner has played a major role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in recent months, as a squad of mercenaries wage a months-long offensive in the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.
Source: Reuters.
Source: Kathimerini
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