OPINION: UKRAINE SAYS PRISONERS RECRUITED BY RUSSIA ARE COMMITTING CRIMES AGAINST CIVIL POPULATION

About 90 percent of the Wagner PMC mercenaries fighting in Ukraine may be convicts recruited to participate in the Russian war on Ukraine. That’s according to John Kirby, a strategic communications coordinator with the U.S. National Security Council. The total number of PMCs in Ukraine can reach 50,000, of which 40,000 are former convicted felons, while some of them also serious health conditions.

According to Kirby, PMC owner Yevgeny Prigozhin is simply trying to fill the war grinder in Bakhmut with more bodies, since about 1,000 Wagner fighters have already been killed in action over the past few weeks. According to the U.S. official, 90 percent of those killed were recruited convicts.

As Russia’s overall death toll in Ukraine has crossed the 100K line, the Kremlin is trying to somehow replenish losses, actively recruit prisoners both in Russia and in other territories. Wagner PMC has been publicly hiring in Russian prisons, sending criminals to the front lines in Ukraine since early June, 2022.

The operation is led by Prigozhin, a Russian billionaire, Putin’s ally and PMC Wagner founder, who is confident himself and convinces his compatriots that convicts should be “happy” to embrace the chance to fight for Russia. He has personally recruited thousands of such convicts.

Earlier, Prigozhin claimed he would, too dream to join the ranks of the Russian army if he were serving time in prison, to “pay his dues to Motherland.”

Despite assurances that the offer to sign a contract applies only to those serving short sentences for light offenses, in fact, pretty much any convict is free to sign a six-month deal: murderers, rapists, pedophiles, as well as prisoners suffering from mental disorders. Besides a hefty pay, felons are offered absolute freedom of action while in Ukraine be it looting, violence against locals, robbery, as well as fighting under alcohol influence. It’s only desertion that is punishable – by execution.

Indeed, a rather logical replenishment for the army of looters and rapists, which has already become infamous for its atrocious war crimes. In fact, Putin followed Stalin’s path by restoring the notorious “penal battalions” of World War 2.

It is known that Wagnerites have been present in Ukraine since the outbreak of hostilities in 2014. After the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine late February 2022, the number of mercenaries present in Donbas and other regions of Ukraine further increased.
Wagner mercenaries are particularly brutal as its members widely apply torture and extrajudicial executions involving such weapons as knives and sledgehammers. They are also known for burying their victims alive. Mass rape cases have also been recorded multiple times.

However, brutality is a signature style of the entire Russian army. The fact that the Russian forces fight exclusively by terrorist methods, destroying civilian infrastructure and committing genocide of Ukrainians, has long been clear to the entire civilized world.

Meanwhile, Ukrainians continue to courageously defend their country, liberating Russia-captured territories and actually standing guard over the security of all of Europe.

However, without further support, urgent supplies of required weaponry from partners, as well as the intervention of international community and the wide exposure of war crimes committed by the Russian army, including Wagner PMC, Russian atrocities will only gain momentum and become an even bigger threat to the whole world.