The private Russian mercenary group Wagner has attracted attention with a suggestion to recruit more personnel for the offensive war in Ukraine: its boss and founder Yevgeny Prigozhin wants to send female prisoners to the front – in exchange for later release from prison or at least a reduced sentence. Male prisoners are already being offered this option.
Prigozhin can imagine various positions at the front for female prisoners. These could “serve not only as nurses and radio operators, but also in sabotage groups and sniper pairings,” the 61-year-old said, according to the Moscow Times. He got the idea from a member of parliament from the Russian region of Sverdlovsk. this one was approached by female prisoners, if they could not serve in the “military special operation”.
“I think they can help our country,” is convinced MP Vyacheslav Wegner. He asked Prigozhin to consider this possibility. And he doesn’t seem to be averse: “There is resistance, but I think we will make it,” said the Wagner boss.
Already 35,000 prisoners have been recruited as soldiers
The troops at the front in Ukraine have already been reinforced with male prisoners: as Russian prison rights activist Olga Romanova explained, 35,000 prisoners have already been released early from prison to go to war for Moscow. Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny witnessed the recruitment efforts of the Wagner group in the prison camp where he himself is serving a sentence. “About 80 to 90 people have agreed to go to war,” Navalny reported. Soon after, there was a second wave of recruitment. “Within 24 hours, murderers and robbers will be released with long prison terms,” he wrote in a letter posted on Twitter.
Recruited soldiers serve as cannon fodder
However, the “from prison to the front” deal should be treated with caution: as the British Secret Service recently reported, the mercenary group uses recruits as cannon fodder. Some are given a smartphone or tablet that uses satellite imagery to show their intended attack route and target. In action they get fire protection, but only rarely armored vehicles. Anyone who fails to carry out orders is threatened with death: “Wagner members who deviate from their attack routes without permission risk professional execution.”
Source: Krone
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