32,000 prisoners fighting for Wagner in Ukraine head home

Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said 32,000 former Russian prisoners have returned home after the end of their contracts with the mercenary militia fighting in Ukraine.

Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said 32,000 former Russian prisoners have returned home after the end of their contracts with the mercenary militia fighting in Ukraine.

According to Prigozhin, 83 crimes were committed by those who gained their freedom and returned Russia, which he claimed was “80 times less” than the number committed by those released from prison over the same period without having served with Wagner.

Prigozhin toured Russian prisons to recruit fighters, promising pardons if they survived a half-year tour of front-line duty with Wagner. In an interview last month, Prigozhin said he recruited 50,000 convicts, about 10,000 of whom were killed in Bakhmut.