Russian mercenary organization Wagner plans to recruit about 30,000 new fighters by mid-May, its founder said today, Evgeny Prigozhin.

In an audio message on Telegram, Prigozhin, who reported last week that Wagner recruiting centers have opened in 42 Russian cities, added today that they are recruiting an average of 500 to 800 people every day.

Prigogine did not provide evidence to support these figures, which Reuters was unable to independently confirm.

The men of the organization suffered heavy losseswhile spearheading Russian efforts to capture the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, which has been resisted since last summer in the longest and bloodiest battle of the year-long war in Ukraine.

In January USA it is estimated that Wagner has about 50,000 fighters in Ukraineamong them are 40,000 convicts whom Prigozhin recruited from Russian prisons with the promise that they would be pardoned if they lived for six months.

Ukrainian officials say about 30,000 of the group’s fighters have deserted, been killed or wounded, a number that cannot be independently ascertained.

Prigozhin says the recruitment is going better than expected and that the volunteers are in better physical condition than previously recruited prisoners.

Source: APE-MPE-Reuters

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