Source, LEAKED VIDEO
The boss of the Russian mercenary company Wagner was seen in a leaked video trying to persuade prisoners to fight in Ukraine.
In the BBC-confirmed video, Yevgeny Prigozjin is seen speaking to a large group of prisoners.
Prigozjin tells the prisoners that their sentences will be forgiven if they fight Wagner.
The footage confirms speculation that Russia hopes to increase the number of soldiers by recruiting prisoners.
Yevgeny Prigozhin defended the idea of recruiting mercenaries from prison, making a statement after the video went viral: Either the prisoners go to fight or your children.
“If I were in prison, I would be dreaming of joining the Wagner Group and paying my debt to my homeland,” Prigozhin wrote on his social media account. used the phrases.
Addressing those who do not want prisoners or mercenaries to fight, Prigozhin said, “Either private military companies and prisoners will fight, or if they don’t, your children will go to war. You decide for yourself,” he said.
The description does not make any reference to the video that has been spread. Wagner’s boss also does not confirm whether the video is real or not.
‘You are free if you work for Wagner for six months’
Russian law does not allow the forgiveness of sentences in exchange for mercenary service. However, Prigozjin insists that “no one will go back behind bars” if they work with Wagner.
“If you work for Wagner for six months, you are free,” says Prigozjin.
However, he warns the prisoners against desertion after they are drafted and says, “If you go to Ukraine and say that this is not for me, we will execute you.”
It also informs inmates of Wagner’s rules on alcohol, drugs, and “forbidding sexual intercourse with local women, vegetation, animals, men, anything.”
Speaking at what is thought to be a sports ground, Prigozjin describes the situation Russia faced in Ukraine as “This is a tough war, Chechnya and the others can’t even get past it.”
It is not known by whom and when the video was taken and how it leaked.
However, the BBC’s geolocation technology determined that the video was shot in a prison in the Mari El Republic in central Russia.
The experts did this by matching the church seen behind the video.
Prigozjin speaking in the video was also confirmed by facial recognition technology and the testimony of those who knew him.
A source said, “It’s his voice, his intonation. His words and the way he speaks. I’m 95% sure it’s him, not a montage.”
Another source said, “They are very similar, their demeanor and voice are very similar.”
Prigozjin, a close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, previously denied being associated with the Wagner group, which deployed troops to Ukraine, Syria and some African countries.
However, the Russian oligarch is seen in the video telling the prisoners that he is “a representative of a private war company” and says “Perhaps you have heard the name of the Wagner Group”.
Prizoghin says the prisoners “must be in good physical condition” and that prisoners from a St Petersburg prison participated in the June attack on the Vuhlehirska Power Plant in eastern Ukraine.
‘known as Putin’s chief’
Source, Getty Images
The Wagner Group’s origins are unclear, but it is believed to have been founded by former Russian officer Dmitri Utkin.
The BBC had previously identified ties between Prigozhin and Wagner, who were nicknamed “Putin’s cook” for his rise from running the restaurant and serving food to the Kremlin’s Palace.
Mercenaries affiliated with the Wagner Group are believed to have been stationed in Ukraine since 2014.
Since the Russian invasion in February, Ukrainian forces say they have carried out attacks against Wagner bases in occupied eastern Ukraine.
US defense officials said last month that 80,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since February, and Moscow used Wagner to fill the gap due to heavy losses.
In addition, independent Russian media, speaking with prisoners in different parts of the country, reported that Prigozjin personally visited the prisons and recruited for the war in Ukraine.