Wagner announces the opening of 42 recruiting centers in Russia


by Mark Trevelyan

LONDON (Reuters) – Wagner Group chief Yevgeni Prigojine announced on Friday the opening of recruiting centers in 42 cities across Russia to bolster the strength of Russia’s private militia which is suffering heavy losses in eastern Bakhmout. from Ukraine.

In an audio message, Yevgeny Prigojine said reinforcements were arriving at the front, without giving figures, and assured that his mercenaries were also better supplied with ammunition, while continuing to worry about “shortages”.

“Despite the colossal resistance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, we will move forward. Despite the obstacles thrown at us at every step, we will overcome this together,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Bakhmout, in Donetsk Oblast, has been the scene of a bloody trench battle for seven months between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

Wagner, whose leader has compared this campaign to a “meat grinder”, claims to have almost surrounded the city.

The Ukrainian general staff announced on Monday that it wanted to continue to defend the position, above all symbolic in the eyes of observers.

In another post on social media on Friday, Yevgeny Prigojine said Ukraine was preparing a counter-offensive near Bakhmout.

“Yes, it is a well-known fact that the enemy is preparing a counter-offensive. Of course, we are doing everything possible to prevent this,” he said.

Yevgeny Prigojine has already admitted that his group suffered heavy losses on the spot, even photographing themselves last month near the corpses of mercenaries piled up in order to demand the sending of ammunition by the Russian government.

Last January, the United States estimated the number of Wagner fighters in Ukraine at around 50,000, including 40,000 prisoners recruited from Russian prisons with the promise of being free if they survived six months.

In February, Yevgeny Prigojine declared that he was no longer authorized to recruit prisoners.

The Ukrainian authorities affirm for their part that nearly 30,000 men of Wagner were killed, wounded, or deserted.

In one of his messages on Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin thanked the Russian government for “heroically” increasing the production of ammunition for its fighters, while still saying he was “worried about the shortages of ammunition and shells not only for the private military company Wagner but for all units of the Russian army”.

(French version Jean-Stéphane Brosse)

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