The Wagner paramilitary organization plans to recruit female prisoners from Russian prisons and send them to fight in Ukraine, after doing the same to the men, its leader Yevgeny Prigojine said Wednesday.
“Not only as nurses or operators, but also in groups of saboteurs or sniper teams. We all know that this has already been done en masse,” Prigozhin said.
“There are resistances”
The Wagner leader was obviously referring to women snipers and those present in partisan groups who fought in World War II and who were promoted by Soviet propaganda.
“We are working in that direction. There is resistance, but I think we will overcome it, ”added Evguéni Prigojine, quoted by his press service on Telegram.
He was reacting to a message from a Russian elected official from the Urals who claimed that women detained in a prison in the city of Nizhny Tagil asked him to send them to the Ukrainian front to help the Russian army.
Suspected recruitment in Russian prisons
In recent months, Wagner is suspected of recruiting men detained in Russian prisons en masse, then sending them to fight on the front lines in Ukraine against the promise of reduced sentences and handsome pay.
Since 2014, this group has been accused of serving the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s shadow regime and of committing abuses in many conflict zones, particularly in Syria and in African countries.
In September, Yevgeny Prigojine, 61, admitted to founding this organization after years of denial and it now operates in Russia with an open face, a sign of some rise in power.
Source: BFM TV
