Tens of thousands of “Wagner” mercenaries stationed in Ukraine – almost all prisoners Boris Becker’s TV allowance – and the question of the future

According to the US government, tens of thousands of mercenaries from the Russian battle group “Wagner” are stationed in Ukraine. According to White House communications director John Kirby, there are currently an estimated 50,000 mercenaries in Ukraine, including 40,000 convicts.

In the past few weeks alone, about 1,000 “Wagner” fighters have died in battles. About 90 percent of them were convicts, Kirby said. The prisoners came from Russian prisons. In certain cases, the Russian army is commanded by the “Wagner” group.

Kirby also stated that “North Korea has completed an initial arms delivery to Wagner” – the mercenary group paid for it. “We assume that the amount of material supplied to Wagner will not change the dynamics on the battlefield and in Ukraine, but we are certainly concerned that North Korea plans to provide more military equipment.”

US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said North Korea supplied the weapons last month. “It is reprehensible that Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council – in violation of UN Security Council resolutions – is now using weapons from North Korea and Iran to wage its war of aggression against Ukraine,” said Thomas-Greenfield.

Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, known for his close ties to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, first publicly admitted in September that he had founded the infamous group of mercenaries. Prigozhin explained that he formed the unit in 2014 for use on the Russian side in the Ukrainian Donbass.

He also confirmed the operations of the “Wagner” group in Syria, other Arab countries, as well as in Africa and Latin America. “Wagner” mercenaries were also in Sudan, Mali and Libya. Putin has always denied that the mercenary group was formed at the behest of the Kremlin and was deployed to support the Russian army.

Prigozhin turns people in Ukraine “literally through the meat grinder,” Kirby said. He has no respect for human life, especially for Ukrainian ones. “But I’d go so far as not to even say in Russian,” Kirby said. He announced that the US government would impose new sanctions on the mercenaries. (aeg/sda/dpa)