MADRID, March 25 (EUROPA PRESS) –
More than 5,000 criminals have received pardons after serving a stipulated period in Russian mercenary group Wagner to fight in Ukraine since the start of the conflict, the organization’s founder, Yevgeni Prigozhin, announced Saturday.
“At present, more than 5,000 people have been released with pardons after concluding their contracts with Wagner,” Prigozhin said in a message posted on Telegram and picked up by Russian newspaper ‘Kommersant’.
In his message, Prigozhin said — citing a study by the group itself — that only 0.31 percent of those who were pardoned had returned to criminal activity, a figure “between 10 and 20 times lower than the usual average.”
Since the start of the Ukrainian invasion just over a year ago, Prigozhin has enjoyed, according to the British, unrestricted access to Russian prisons to recruit prisoners willing to fight in exchange for their release if they last at least six months.
However, many of them lacked the necessary military preparation to undertake an undertaking of this magnitude. According to British Intelligence services, half of the 40,000 detainees recruited have died.
Last week, Wagner announced a recruiting campaign at sports centers in nearly fifty Russian cities, where they hope to enroll around 30,000 new volunteers.
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