Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin are running out of mercenaries. Now he’s pursuing a new plan to get recruits again.
Moscow – The Wagner Group now recruits its mercenaries through recruitment centers set up across Russia. This was announced by the British Ministry of Defense. Students would be targeted. In its most recent assessment of the Ukraine war, the ministry noted that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the paramilitary group’s founder, “is most likely targeting his recruitment efforts at free Russian citizens.”
Due to his ongoing disputes with the Russian Defense Ministry, he can no longer recruit in prisons, reports Newsweek. Prigozhin, who is fighting with his men for the city of Bakhmut, has come increasingly publicly at odds with the Kremlin in recent weeks. He has accused the Russian Defense Ministry of treason. He also said that government officials are deliberately withholding ammunition from the mercenary force. This endangers a military victory in Bachmut.
Ukraine war: Wagner boss Prigoschin now wants to recruit students
The UK Ministry of Defense noted that since early March, the Wagner Group has deployed response teams to sports centers in at least 40 locations across Russia, including targeting schoolchildren. “In the past few days, masked Wagner recruiters have also been holding career talks in Moscow high schools and handing out questionnaires titled ‘Application from a Young Warrior’ to collect contact details from interested students,” the ministry said.
Prigozhin himself made a corresponding announcement. “In order to recruit new fighters for the private military company Wagner, who will defend our fatherland, we have already opened recruitment centers for the PMC Wagner in a number of cities,” he said about his company Concord. The centers are located in sports clubs across the country. Those interested in joining the Wagner group “are tested to see how strong they are physically and then are told how they will come to us”.
Wagner boss Prigoschin has to cope with high losses
“We have full confidence in these centers and they are our supporters. The first center we opened was the Grusha Martial Arts Club at Shmitovskiy proezd 2 in Moscow. A special thank you to them, they are the first,” Prigozhin wrote. The British Ministry of Defense found that about half of the convicts used by the Wagner group in Ukraine died. Prigozhin is becoming increasingly desperate and urgently needs supplies. According to the ministry in London, “the loss of the recruitment pipeline for convicts” could probably not be compensated for by the “new initiatives”. (mse)
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