The manager of the private Russian paramilitary company Wagner openly spoke out in favor of this option.
Paramilitary organization Wagner plans to recruit female prisoners from Russian prisons and send them to fight in Ukraine after doing the same with men, its leader Yevgeny Prigoyine said on Wednesday. “Not only as nurses or operators, but also in saboteur groups or in sniper teams. We all know that this has already happened on a large scale,” said Evguéni Prigojine.
The leader of the Wagners was obviously referring to female snipers and members of the partisan groups who fought in World War II and were encouraged by Soviet propaganda. “We are working in this direction. There is resistance, but I think we will overcome it,” added Evguéni Prigojine, quoted by his press service on Telegram.
Also read”In Russia, the Wagner militia is a state within a state”
He was responding to a message from an elected Russian official from the Urals, who claimed women being held in a prison in the city of Nizhny Tagil had asked him to be sent to the Ukrainian front to help the Russian army.
In recent months, Wagner has been suspected of recruiting male inmates en masse from Russian prisons and then sending them to the front lines in Ukraine with promises of reduced sentences and attractive salaries.
Since 2014, this group has been accused of serving the interests of the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the shadows and of committing abuses in many conflict zones, especially in Syria and African countries. In September, 61-year-old Yevgeny Prigoyine admitted to founding the organization after years of denial and is now operating openly in Russia, a sign of some rise in power.
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