Day 335 since the beginning of the war: The Russian Wagner Group has hired prisoners for the fight. According to an NGO, there are only a few left. All information in the news blog.
The most important things at a glance
Only 10,000 Russian prisoners left at the front
According to civil rights activists, of the 50,000 recruits recruited in Russian prisons for the war in Ukraine, only 10,000 are still with the troops. “The rest are killed, injured, missing, surrendered or deserted, including to Russia with weapons in their hands,” said the non-governmental organization (NGO) “Rus Sidyashchaia (“Russia behind bars”) on Monday on its Telegram – Kanal with The prisoners were mainly recruited by the mercenary unit “Wagner”.
According to the founder of the NGO, Olga Romanova, the prisoners who escaped and were taken prisoner of war are a potential problem for the head of the “Wagner” force, the oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. Prigozhin should not show these statistics to Russian President Vladimir Putin, she said. The oligarch known as “Putin’s cook” was given unlimited powers to recruit prisoners on the condition that he fully controlled them.
Prigozhin, who himself was in prison during Soviet times, recruited some of the prison inmates personally. When he was recruited, he promised the prisoners that they would be released after they had completed their military service. At the same time he threatened deserters with summary executions. A video distributed weeks ago by the Wagner squad is intended to demonstrate the seriousness of the threat: it shows a prisoner being beaten to death with a sledgehammer. The man had previously been taken prisoner of war by the Ukraine, but returned to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange.
EU increases military aid to Ukraine by 500 million euros
4:17 p.m.: The European Union has again increased its military aid to Ukraine. The EU foreign ministers approved a further tranche of 500 million euros in Brussels on Monday, with which joint arms purchases and ammunition are to be financed, according to diplomats. This increases the funds made available since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression to 3.6 billion euros.
The money flows from a pot outside the EU budget, the so-called peace facility, of which Germany, as the largest economy, finances around a fifth. In addition, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on his EU colleagues during a video call for tanks, further sanctions against Russia and progress in the accession process, as he wrote in the short message service Twitter. “We need bold, resolute and bold steps to ensure Ukraine’s victory in 2023,” he stressed.
The EU foreign ministers also discussed the 10th sanctions package against Russia, which is to be adopted ahead of the anniversary of the Russian attack on February 24. According to diplomats, a price cap for diesel and other oil products is planned. This requires a unanimous decision by the member states.
