Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Huge numbers of convicts are being recruited by the Russian Ministry of Defence to fight in Ukraine, while at least 77% of the Wagner Group's prisoner recruits are reported to have become casualties. Many have surrendered but Wagner is reportedly concealing how many. ⬇️

2/ According to Olga Romanova, the head of the 'Russia Behind Bars' human rights group – which campaigns for prisoners' rights – convicts are still being recruited on a huge scale to fight, despite the Wagner Group no longer being allowed to recruit from Russian jails.

3/ Romanova says that since February 2023, prisoner recruitment has been carried out by the Russian government rather than Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group. The pace of recruitment has recently increased drastically, likely to replace heavy Russian losses on the battlefield.

4/ Hundreds of people are said to have been taken simultaneously from prison colonies across Russia – a total of about 10,000 people just in the month of April. The convicts are required to sign a document agreeing not to disclose any information about their recruitment.

5/ Surplus prisoners are given to Wagner when the regular military is unable to handle the numbers. Wagner itself is reported to have recruited some 49,000 prisoners by 1 February 2023.

6/ Of these, 77% were listed as combat and non-combat casualties (i.e. including escaped and surrendered prisoners). Those captured by Ukraine are recorded as killed and compensation is paid to their wives. "Prigozhin is afraid of the surrender statistics," says Romanova.

7/ Despite the huge casualty numbers, convicts are still evidently willing to sign up to fight. Romanova says that prisoners complain about the colony authorities crossing them off the list of those who signed up for the war.

8/ As SOTA notes, "The colony bosses do not benefit from sending prisoners to the front as this deprives them of bribes for parole and income from work in the [prison's] industrial zone." /end

Source:
t.me/sotaproject/58…