Romanova estimated it to be about 15,000 as of early June. Western military officials say convicts formed the bulk of Wagner's force there, though Prigozhin said in February that his company was no longer recruiting from prisons.Ībout 32,000 have returned from Ukraine, Prigozhin said last week, before his abortive rebellion against the Defense Ministry. Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said he had recruited 50,000 convicts for Ukraine, an estimate also made by Olga Romanova, director of the prisoner rights group Russia Behind Bars.

The British Defense Ministry warned of the fallout in March, saying 'the sudden influx of often violent offenders with recent and often traumatic combat experience will likely present a significant challenge for Russia's wartime society' as their service ends. The Associated Press found at least seven other instances in recent months in which Wagner-recruited convicts were identified as being involved in violent crimes, either by Russian media reports or in interviews with relatives of victims in locations from Kaliningrad in the west to Siberia in the east. In this image taken from video and released by the press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner private military contractor, May 20, 2023, he speaks while holding a Russian flag in front of his forces in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Putin thanks Russians in first speech since Wagner revolt.He reportedly confessed to committing the crime, less than 10 days after his return. Three years ago, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to a long prison term, but he was freed after volunteering to fight with the Wagner Group as a private military contractor.īack in Novy Burets, Rossomakhin drunkenly wandered the streets of the hamlet about 500 miles east of Moscow, carrying a pitchfork and threatening to kill everyone, residents said.ĭespite police promises to keep an eye on the 28-year-old former inmate, he was arrested in a nearby town on charges of stabbing to death an elderly woman from whom he once rented a room. Tallinn, Estonia - When Ivan Rossomakhin returned home from the war in Ukraine three months ago, neighbors in his village east of Moscow were terrified.

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