Stop Recruitment Of Prisoners For War In Ukraine, Chief Of The Russian Wagner Army: We Fulfill All Obligations

Illustration of Wagner Group headquarters (Twitter/@Archer83Able)

JAKARTA - Russian Wagner mercenaries have stopped recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine, founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said Thursday.

"The recruitment of prisoners by Wagner's private military company has been completely discontinued," Prigozhin said in response to a request for comment from Russian media published on social media.

"We fulfill all our obligations to those who work for us now," he continued.

Wagner began recruiting prisoners in Russia's extensive sentencing system in the summer of 2022, with Prigozhin, a catering entrepreneur who served nine years in prison during the Soviet Union, offering prisoners forgiveness if they lasted six months in Ukraine.

Wagner has not provided information about how many inmates have joined him, but the number of Russian correctional services published in November showed the country's prison population fell by more than 20,000 between August and November, the biggest decline in more than a decade.

According to figures published in January, the decline has largely stopped.

In December, Reuters reported the US intelligence community believed the Wagner Group had 40,000 prisoners deployed in Ukraine, making it the majority of the group's total personnel deployed to the battlefield.

Wagner's group has in recent months played an increasingly prominent role in Russia's war in Ukraine, with mercenaries leading months of attacks on the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.

Previously closed-door, Wagner and his founder Prigozhin had taken a more public profile with a fighting background in Ukraine, with Prigozhin criticizing the Russian military leadership and certain officials.

In January, Russian state media released footage of Prigozhin's meeting with the first group of inmates to complete their duties in Ukraine and receive pardons.

In one video, Prigozhin can be seen telling the fighters: "Remember life has given you this opportunity: you don't shy away from honor, you don't ignore it: you defend the country, you are all ready to die in the past in an assignment of 180 days".