Thursday 15 September 2022 10:38 AM Putin's 'chef' recruiting prisoners to join Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine trends now
Putin's 'chef' offered violent criminals and sex offenders locked up in Russia's former Gulag prison region a pardon if they survive fighting in Ukraine for six months.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, 61, told prisoners they should take their own lives instead of being captured in Ukraine, holding one grenade for the enemy and one for themselves.
Video shows Prigozhin telling the criminals they can become war heroes or be shot as deserters, as the Kremlin steps up recruitment of inmates after suffering a humiliating defeat against Ukraine's army in the east.
'This is a hard war, not even close to the likes of [Chechnya] and the others,' he was videoed telling them.
'My ammo consumption is two-and-a-half-times higher than in the battle of Stalingrad,' where there were almost two million casualties, he said.
The sales pitch to hundreds of inmates under grey skies at a high security penal colony in Mordovia, a former Gulag prison camp region, comes personally from Prigozhin, nicknamed Vladimir Putin’s ‘chef’, who was recently made a Hero of Russia for his loyalty.
Murderers, sex offenders and burglars are offered instant freedom and a pardon from Putin if they survive six months at the frontline in the bloody war.
Those who die will be buried 'as heroes', he tells them.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, 61, told the inmates they will be pardoned if they survive six months in the war against Ukraine. They should take their own lives instead of being taken prisoner, he said
The Wagner chief gave the inmates five minutes to decide if they wanted to join Russia's war in Ukraine. The minimum age is 22, and the maximum is 50, with a six-month commitment
Those who face capture by Ukraine are ordered to use grenades to kill themselves rather than fall into enemy hands.
Convict soldiers who desert are told they will be instantly executed with a bullet to the head.
A secretly filmed video shows Prigozhin, 61, admit that he represents the Wagner private army, deployed by Putin in Ukraine.
He has previously denied a link to Wagner which is known to have already recruited thousands of inmates as Russia deploys its most dangerous prisoners as fighters.
'I am a representative of a private war company, perhaps you heard the name - Wagner Group,' he tells the assembled prison inmates.
He warns the convicts: 'The first sin is deserting. No-one deserts, no-one gives up, no-one surrenders. You’ll be taught what to do regarding surrender.'
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