BY ISABEL VAN BRUGEN ON 1/3/23 AT 11:34 AM
EST
A pedestrian walks past a mural depicting Russia's para military mercenaries 'Wagner Group' reading : "Wagner Group - Russian knights" on a building's wall in Belgrade, on November 17, 2022. A prisoner from Belarus is reportedly among a group of armed Wagner Group recruits to have fled from a training base in Ukraine.OLIVER BUNIC/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Aprisoner from Belarus is
among a group of armed Wagner Group recruits who fled from a training base in
Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in December, according to a local information
portal.
According to the Donday
Russian information site, Russia's Interior Ministry has issued a
"wanted" notice in the Rostov-on-Don region—located near the Ukraine
border—for six members of the notorious Wagner Group who are accused of fleeing
between December 21 and 22 from a training center in the self-proclaimed
Luhansk People's Republic.
Among
those who escaped from the training center are three Uzbek nationals, a Kyrgyz
national, a Russian national, and a Belarusian. "All six are armed and
dangerous," according to Donday, which cited a source in law enforcement.
Donday described the men as "convicted mercenaries" and as "armed prisoners from the Wagner PMC [Private Military Company]."
Newsweek has been unable to confirm that report, and has reached
out to Belarusian authorities for comment.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a convicted criminal, a Russian businessman,
and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who
declared himself in September 2022 to be the mastermind behind the Wagner
Group, responded to a question from a journalist about the escaped Wagner
fighters.
"The National Guard, the police and the security service of
the Wagner PMC are engaged in catching various kinds of armed people," he said via
the press service of the company "Concord," which he owns.
Prigozhin added: "And, believe me, at different levels, starting from the advanced LPR, DPR and the territory of Russia, many villains are being detained, whom you don't even need to know about. So sleep well."
The
paramilitary group is heavily involved in the current fighting in Ukraine and
assisted the Russian military in the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The
Russian state since 2014 had repeatedly denied the group's existence,
maintaining that mercenaries are illegal under Russian law and that private
military security companies would also not be permitted under its legislation
to offer services outside of Russia.
But
after Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24, the public narrative shifted in
Russia about the group that provides soldiers for hire, and Russia kickstarted
a process to legalize private military companies (PMCs) in the country.
Although
the Kremlin still officially denies any direct connections between the Wagner
Group and the state, many believe its campaigns are coordinated with Russia's
Defense Ministry.
The Wagner Group has been recruiting large numbers of prisoners for
Putin's war in Ukraine and hiring in
penal colonies in Russia, offering male prisoners commuted sentences and
cash incentives in return for six months of military service in Ukraine.
Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian human rights activist and the head of the Gulagu.net anti-corruption project, a prisoners' rights group, told Newsweek last week that since February 24, as many as 30,000 prisoners have been recruited from jails and deployed to Ukraine, while more than 5,000 have been killed in battle and in the camps of the Wagner Group.
Osechkin
is believed to have a vast network of informants inside Russia's prison system,
and is currently in exile in France.
Recruitment
for the war in Ukraine is taking place in prisons not just in Russia, but also
in some countries in Africa, and in Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
and even Belarus, Osechkin said, citing his sources.
"We
have information that the Belarusian prison system opened the doors to
Prigozhin and his colleagues to recruit the prisoners this year. We have the
document [dated 28 September] about this, when one of the Ministers of Justice of
Belarus transferred it to the department of prisons system to open their doors
to a group of Russian persons who want to enter Belarusian prisons with
Prigozhin," he said.
Belarus,
a loyal Kremlin ally, has not directly joined the Ukraine conflict. However,
Russian troops have been allowed to exercise in Belarusian territory since
before the beginning of the war.
Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment.
Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should
be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know
via worldnews@newsweek.com.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-wagner-group-recruiting-prisoners-belarus-war-1770932
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