Russian authorities pardoned the first wave of former convicts who survived six months at the front in Ukraine, making good on a promise made to them by mercenary tycoon Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has sent thousands of troops to fight in the Kremlin’s invasion.
Prigozhin, head of the Wagner military contracting company, announced the pardons and hailed the roughly two dozen survivors as “warriors” in a meeting with them from the southern Krasnodar region near the Ukrainian border, according to the state-run RIA Novosti agency, which published a brief video showing him clad in fatigues. A second clip showed him at an apparently separate event with wounded fighters, including several who had lost legs.
A longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin has emerged as one of the most prominent supporters of his war, providing tens of thousands of troops, both contractors from Wagner and convicts. The latter program started around June, with the former catering tycoon personally visiting prisons to offer inmates who lasted half a year at the front pardons, but threatening those who surrendered or deserted with death.
Speaking out regularly in public, including with harsh criticism of top military commanders, Prigozhin has also attacked the Kremlin’s civilian appointees with apparent impunity, leading insiders to fear his growing influence.
The U.S., U.K. and European Union have imposed a steady string of sanctions and other measures on Prigozhin and Wagner for their role in the war and in fighting in the Middle East and Africa.
Prigozhin is spending more than $100 million per month to fund Wagner’s operations in Ukraine, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said last month. The administration estimates Wagner has 50,000 personnel on the ground in Ukraine, including 40,000 convicts and 10,000 contractors.
“Wagner is on the ground playing a significant role there where its ill-equipped and ill-trained forces are, quite frankly, suffering heavy casualties,” said Kirby.
In the video released by RIA Thursday, Prigozhin didn’t comment on how many of the first wave of convict recruits were killed or captured, citing only one example of a man serving a 30-year sentence who he said had blown himself up in battle after being cut off from his unit.
In November, after a video emerged of what appeared to be a former Wagner mercenary who had changed sides being executed by a sledgehammer blow to the head, Prigozhin issued a statement saying the clip should be called “a dog receives a dog’s death.”
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