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Of the 50 000 recruited prisoners, only 10 000 remained in the PMC “Wagner”. Others were eliminated by the war

Author:
Sofiia Telishevska
Date:

The private military company (PMC) "Wagner" by Yevhen Pryhozhyn lost almost 40 000 previously recruited prisoners during the war in Ukraine.

This was stated by the head of the "Sitting Russia" ["Rusʼ Sidyaschaya"] charitable foundation Olha Romanova in an interview with the My Russian Rights channel.

According to the human rights activist, by the end of December, approximately 43 000 Russian prisoners were recruited to the PMC "Wagner", later this number increased to 50 000.

"Ten thousand of them are fighting at the front today, because all the others were killed, "three hundred", disappeared, deserted or surrendered," she noted.

According to Romanova, the mass desertion of prisoners from "Wagner" began in the fall. At the same time, many fled from the front in Russia with weapons.

Romanova suggested that Yevhen Pryhozhyn himself does not keep track of the missing and deserters among the mercenaries — everyone is simply recorded among the dead. This is also indicated by the cases when relatives of the dead in Russia receive empty coffins.