Russia’s Wagner mercenary group is gearing up to enlist approximately 30,000 new fighters by mid-May, according to its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.
In an audio message on Telegram, Prigozhin revealed that Wagner recruitment centers, which he claims have opened in 42 Russian cities, are taking on an average of 500-800 people per day.
Despite Reuters’ inability to independently verify the figures, Prigozhin is convinced that his recruitment drive is progressing better than expected, and the volunteers are in better shape than the previous convicts he had hired.
However, Prigozhin’s men have suffered significant losses in their efforts to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has been holding out since last summer, resulting in the longest and bloodiest battle of the year-long war.
While the United States estimates that Wagner had 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, including 40,000 convicts recruited from Russian prisons with the promise of a free pardon if they survived six months, Ukrainian officials claim that approximately 30,000 of Wagner’s fighters have either deserted or been killed or wounded, but this figure is yet to be confirmed.
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