Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the Russian Wagner group has repeatedly been the subject of discussion. With barely imaginable brutality, she fights in Ukraine alongside Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin (70).
Wagner’s mercenaries were also involved in the battle for the Ukrainian city of Soledar and played a decisive role in Russia’s capture of the small city. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin (61) celebrated his team’s “victory” with a photo showing him in Europe’s largest salt mine in Soledar.
Moreover, Prigozhin pointedly pointed out that “apart from Wagner’s fighters, no other units took part in the assault on Soledar”. It is not possible to check whether the photo is real or posed.
More and more fighters from the penal colonies of Russia
For a long time little or nothing was known about the circumstances within the Wagner group. Meanwhile, more and more information is leaking out. It is already known that the mercenaries are recruiting more and more fighters from Russian penal colonies.
The independent Russian news portal “We Can Explain It” has now published the interrogation protocols of captured prison recruits, according to a report by “Tagesspiegel”. Among others, a certain Sergei Vereshchagin will speak. He is a convicted double murderer who fought for Wagner at the front in Soledar.
He was transferred there last December after an extremely short training session on a Kalashnikov. The recruits were told early on what would happen if they got a wrong idea. “We’ve been told if we pull out, it’s done,” says Vereshchagin. He always followed the order because he knew “otherwise they would kill me”.
“Who the hell are you?”
Another prison recruit mentioned in the logs is Alexander Drozdov. His descriptions have it all. He and his unit would have come under fire – unintentionally – from the Russian army during a battle. According to Drozdov, recruited prisoners do not wear Wagner uniforms and are otherwise not recognizable as mercenaries.
Therefore, there was confusion on the battlefield. “We were ordered to attack, but all the time we were being shot at by the Russians. We were shouting: ‘We are Russians, we are Russians’. And they said: ‘Who the hell are you?’».
Drozdov’s comments also offer a glimpse into the organizational structure of the Wagner Group. Thus, the prison recruits would be divided into different groups. Rapists and pedophiles are not divided up, but deliberately grouped into their own units. There are also stormtroopers, the so-called “Rexes”. According to Drozdov, these are “completely crazy” because “they are all junkies”.
Losses are “gigantic”
Russia’s prisons are full of inmates serving prison terms for drug-related crimes. No wonder they also make up a large portion of Wagner recruits. Some of them, for example HIV patients, must wear a red band as a distinguishing mark.
All in all, conditions for Wagner mercenaries are anything but rosy. According to Drozdov, the losses at the front are “gigantic”. In addition, recruits who disobeyed marching orders would be shot without hesitation by the commanders. (ceded)