The Wagner Group announces the end of the recruitment of mercenaries in Russian prisons

9 Feb. () –

The owner of the Wagner Group, the Russian oligarch Yevgeni Prigozhin, has assured this Thursday that the recruitment of mercenaries in Russian prisons has ended with a view to sending them to conflict zones, including Ukraine.

“The recruitment of prisoners by the Wagner Group has been completely stopped,” Prigozhin said, according to statements published by his press service through his Telegram account. “All the obligations with those who work for us are fulfilled”, he has settled.

The Intelligence services of the United Kingdom pointed out last week that the Wagner Group had reduced the rate of recruitment of prisoners in recent weeks to add them to the conflict in Ukraine, unleashed on February 24, 2022 by order of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Specifically, if the Russian prison services reported a decrease of 23,000 people in the prison population between September and November, between November and January the figure has risen to around 6,000. UK Intelligence services consider the Wagner Group to play a key role.

The Wagner Group, which has deployed mercenaries to several countries in Africa in recent years, has been involved in some of the most significant advances by pro-Moscow forces in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, even claiming conquests of areas before even that the Russian Government publicly confirmed them.