Ukraine war: Russia’s Wagner mercenary group says halting prisoner recruitment campaign
- Wagner mercenary group has recruited thousands of fighters to wage war in Ukraine
- It is run by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has stopped recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine, Wagner’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Thursday.
“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.
“We are fulfilling all our obligations to those who work for us now,” he said.
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.
Wagner has not provided information on how many convicts joined its ranks, but Russian penal service figures published in November showed the country’s prison population dropping by over 20,000 between August and November, the largest drop in over a decade.
According to figures published in January, the decline had largely stopped.