Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has stopped recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine, Wagner’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin says.
“The recruitment of prisoners by the Wagner private military company has completely stopped,” Prigozhin said in a response to a request for comment from a Russian media outlet published on social media.Wagner began recruiting prisoners in Russia’s sprawling penal system in summer 2022, with Prigozhin, a catering entrepreneur who served nine years in prison during the Soviet Union, offering convicts a pardon if they survived six months in Ukraine.
The Wagner Group has in recent months played an increasingly prominent role in Russia’s war in Ukraine, with the mercenary force spearheading a months-long assault on the Donetsk region town of Bakhmut. Previously secretive, Wagner and its founder Prigozhin have assumed an ever more public profile against the backdrop of the fighting in Ukraine, with Prigozhin criticising Russia’s military leadership and certain officials.
In January, Russian state media released footage of Prigozhin meeting the first group of convict fighters to complete their stints in Ukraine and receive pardons. In one video, Prigozhin was seen telling fighters: “Remember life has given you this chance: you didn’t dodge the honour, you didn’t arse it up: you defended the Motherland, all of you were ready to die in these past 180 days”.
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