The third wave of recruitment of prisoners to participate in the war against Ukraine has begun in Russia.
Of the first thousand prisoners recruited by the “Wagner Group” to participate in the war against Ukraine, only 20 returned home. This was stated by the head of the “Sitting Rus'” public organization Olga Romanova in an interview with the “Today” publication.
According to her, the third wave of recruitment of prisoners into the “Wagner group” is currently underway in Russia. The first wave took place in the prisons of central Russia from June 26 to September 21, the second – in the Urals and the Far East from September 21 to the end of December. Currently, the third has started, which already covers the entire country, including Chechnya.
“Of course, for Prigozhin there is also a great convenience in the fact that there is practically no extradition from Chechnya. There he can do some things that he cannot do in Ryazan region, Smolensk region or somewhere else. This is actually extraterritorial education. That is why recruitment began in Chechen prisons,” Romanova said.
According to the human rights activist, during the entire time, the “Wagner group” managed to recruit about 40 thousand Russian prisoners. However, units return home.
“I think that they do not consider the number of dead – nothing. I think that there is no one there. But let’s look at the results of the first recruitment. In the first days of July, about a thousand people were recruited from the Leningrad and Novgorod regions in the zones, and 20 returned Look at the statistics,” she said.
Participation of Russian prisoners in the war against Ukraine
Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin personally toured Russian prisons and recruited inmates into his private army, known as the “Wagner Group” or “PMC Wagner.” According to experts’ estimates, the Wagnerites, most of whom are yesterday’s prisoners, may make up about a quarter of all Russian forces in Ukraine.
At the front, the “Wagner group” became famous primarily for the fact that it does not spare its soldiers at all and sends them into suicidal attacks for the sake of minimal progress.
The dead Wagnerites are transported around Russia by ordinary truckers, after which they are buried “without too much noise.”
