UN experts have warned that the Wagner group is recruiting prisoners from Russian prisons to fight in Ukraine

UN experts have warned against the “alarming” recruitment of prisoners in Russian prisons speak Wagner Groupa Kremlin-affiliated mercenary organization, using tactics that violate human rights and jeopardize their individual freedoms.

“We are deeply concerned about reports of visits by members of the so-called Wagner group to penal institutions in various regions of Russia.offering pardons for criminal sentences to prisoners who join the Group and participate in the war in Ukraine, in addition to making monthly payments to their families,” the experts explained in a statement.

The mercenary group allegedly recruited both Russian citizens and foreigners serving sentences in Russia and used pressure techniques to do so, through threats and intimidationfor example by preventing detainees from speaking with their families and lawyers.

“We have information that several recruits were executed for trying to escape and in other cases were seriously injured. as a warning to other prisoners,” the experts added. “These tactics constitute human rights violations and could constitute war crimes.”.

They also reported that the prisoners recruited were reportedly transferred to a center in Rostov, a Russian region very close to the Ukrainian border, to be trained there before being transferred to the front. Moreover, they would have brought them into Ukraine without being in possession of their identity papers and having signed a “contract” with the Group.

“We are particularly concerned that the Wagner Group has extended recruitment to prisons in the Donetsk region of Ukraine“, continues the press release, which details that the activities carried out by these prisoners would range from direct participation in the armed conflict to the reconstruction of infrastructure in the territories under Russian control.

UN experts call on the international community, as well as Russia, to recall that “States have an obligation to prohibit individuals and companies from exploiting the vulnerability of prisoners for their own gain”.

A few days ago, the head of the Russian mercenary company Wagner, the businessman Yevgeny PrigozhinHe warned that if his troops withdrew from Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine, “the whole front would collapse”.

“If the private military company Wagner withdraws from Bakhmut, the whole front will collapse.Prigozhin said in a video posted on YouTube, adding that the collapse could reach “up to the borders of Russia and, perhaps, beyond”.

“The situation will not be good for all military formations that protect Russian interests,” he added.

In a nearly four-minute video posted to Wagner’s Telegram channel on Saturday, Prigozhin said his troops feared the government would want to make them potential scapegoats if Russia lost the war.

He pointed out that the Wagners, on the one hand, “they attract the entire Ukrainian army and do not allow it to concentrate on other sectors of the front”.

” And on the other hand, we advance and the others (the soldiers) are obliged to follow us so as not to be portrayedsaid Prigozhin, considered close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Wagner’s boss indicated that his men still do not receive the promised ammunition by the Russian Defense Ministry.

“Regarding ammunition: in the afternoon of February 22, the documents were signed, on February 23 the dispatch orders were issued, but until today, little ammunition has been dispatched,” said he said in a comment posted last night on Telegram. .

Prigozhin indicated that he is trying to find out the cause of this delay, if it is “mere bureaucracy or betrayal”.

The mercenary leader regularly criticizes Russian defense chiefs and high-ranking generals. Last month he accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and others of “treason” for denying his men ammunition supplies.

(With information from Europa Press, EFE and REUTERS)

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