"Wagner PMC" recruited 48 thousand prisoners in the colonies, of which at least 17 thousand died during the battle for Bakhmut
The Wagner PMC, founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, recruited at least 48,366 prisoners to fight in Ukraine, according to calculations by Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service based on internal PMC documents on payments to the families of deceased mercenaries. Representatives of the Wagner PMC, including Prigozhin personally, began traveling to the colonies to recruit in the summer of 2022. Convicts who agreed to fight were released after Putin's secret decrees on pardon.