In October final 12 months, a Russian information website revealed a brief video of Yevgeny Prigozhin, founding father of the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary military, sitting with 4 males on a rooftop terrace within the resort city of Gelendzhik, on Russia’s Black Coastline.

Two are lacking elements of a leg. A 3rd misplaced an arm. They’re recognized as pardoned former convicts, returned from the entrance in Ukraine after becoming a member of Wagner from jail.

“You had been an offender, now you’re a battle hero,” Prigozhin tells one man within the clip. It was the primary video to depict the return of a number of the hundreds of convicts who joined Wagner in return for the promise of a pardon in the event that they survived six months of the battle.

Reuters information company used facial recognition software program to look at this video and greater than a dozen others and images of homecoming convict fighters, revealed between October 2022 and February 2023. Reporters had been capable of establish greater than 30 males by cross-checking the pictures with social media and Russian courtroom paperwork.

Of their ranks are murderers, thieves and a self-declared “Satanist”. A number of are in hospital recovering from wounds sustained within the preventing. Reuters managed to make contact with 11 of those males. 5 agreed to be interviewed by cellphone and messaging apps. What follows is probably the most detailed insider account but of Wagner’s convict military: the fighters’ recruitment and coaching, the fight they noticed in Ukraine, and their unsure future in a Russia turned the wrong way up by battle with its neighbour.

4 of the boys mentioned they had been personally recruited by Prigozhin as he toured Russia’s jail system to bolster his personal military. Some had been deployed to Ukraine’s japanese Bakhmut area, website of a number of the most intense preventing of the one-year-old battle, the place one man described the “utter hell” of the battlefield.

Hundreds have been killed on each side. The battle for town of Bakhmut now hangs within the steadiness. A former Wagner commander who fled to Norway in January has mentioned he witnessed members of the group’s inner safety administering brutal remedy to prisoner recruits, together with executions for desertion.

Fight coaching, some performed by veterans of Russia’s particular forces, was brief however intensive, in response to the boys. Ukrainian and Western officers say Wagner is sending poorly ready fighters to sure demise in japanese Ukraine.

Mike Kofman, an knowledgeable within the Russian navy on the Arlington County, Virginia-based CNA suppose tank, mentioned the 2 to a few weeks of coaching acquired by the convict recruits can be unlikely to convey them in control, even when a number of the males had prior navy expertise.

“It takes time to study fight fundamentals, obtain particular person coaching, and also you additionally want some collective coaching as a unit on prime of it – a few weeks alone isn’t going to do this a lot for you,” mentioned Kofman. A extra rigorous coaching scheme would final a number of months.

All 5 ex-prisoners expressed a fierce loyalty to Prigozhin for giving them a second likelihood at life. Prigozhin has beforehand described Wagner as “most likely probably the most skilled military that exists on this planet in the present day” and mentioned its casualty fee is comparable with different Russian items.

From jail to the entrance line

When Prigozhin started touring Russia’s sprawling penal system in the summertime of 2022 providing pardons to those that agreed to combat in Ukraine, phrase shortly unfold amongst prisoners.

Rustam Borovkov, from the small city of Porkhov, close to Russia’s border with Estonia, was one of many 4 males filmed on the rooftop terrace. Court docket data present the 31-year-old was six years right into a 13-year time period for manslaughter and theft in late July when Prigozhin reached his jail, Penal Colony No 6 in Russia’s western Pskov area. Borovkov and two mates had damaged right into a home to steal homebrewed alcohol, in response to the courtroom papers. One in every of them struck the home-owner who died consequently.

Borovkov had heard from inmates in St Petersburg that Prigozhin was travelling from jail to jail searching for recruits. “I knew instantly that I might go even earlier than he got here to us.”

Borovkov mentioned he stood with a number of hundred different prisoners to listen to Prigozhin communicate. They got three days to determine whether or not to hitch Wagner in return for freedom. About 40 signed up and after three days and a polygraph take a look at, aimed toward rooting out drug addicts, they had been on their solution to battle.

Two months later, as a Ukrainian counteroffensive gathered tempo, a movie emerged on social media of Prigozhin telling convicts within the Volga River area of Mari El they’d solely 5 minutes to decide – and people who modified their minds after becoming a member of can be shot as defectors.

In one other video, revealed in February, Prigozhin informed convict fighters are paid 100,000 roubles ($1,300) month-to-month, with the potential for further bonuses. That’s far above Russia’s common month-to-month wage of 65,000 roubles ($700).

However Borovkov mentioned his solely motivation for becoming a member of Wagner was the promise of a pardon. “I’ve a small youngster. I needed to get again to my household.” He mentioned jail officers tried to steer him to not go as a result of he performed an essential position as head of his cellblock’s medical unit.

Six-time convicted thief Yevgeny Kuzhelev mentioned a way of patriotic obligation drew him to Wagner. The 29-year-old was serving time in Russia’s southwestern Samara area for stealing cognac, beer and instantaneous espresso from supermarkets within the Volga car-making metropolis of Togliatti, in response to courtroom papers.

“I used to be sentenced to a few years and 7 months and I’d already served two years. So I didn’t have lengthy left. However I went anyway. Why? I considered it and I’m positive that if I had been free on the time, I might have one hundred pc gone to combat. I might have gone as a volunteer,” he mentioned. “I bear in mind how from February, when it began, I known as my aunt sometimes from jail. She saved telling me that this buddy of yours went [to Ukraine], then one other one, then a 3rd, a fourth … And I knew that I might have finished the identical.”

Kuzhelev mentioned the recruitment course of took about two weeks, and through this time, inmates had been free to again out with out consequence. Those that enlisted had been moved to separate lodging within the jail the place they encountered a brand new respect from the jail officers.

“Amongst us, there was a person who was serving a 25-year sentence,” Kuzhelev mentioned. “He had a number of months left of his time period and he signed up. The jail officers requested him: ‘What the f**okay are you doing?’ And he informed them: ‘Every thing is ok, I’m going.’ How will you not respect such a choice?”

‘Clear they might die’

Prigozhin has mentioned beforehand that Wagner’s convict fighters spend a month present process rigorous fight drills, sleeping for under 4 hours a day. The fighters mentioned they acquired two to a few weeks of intensive and well-organised coaching. Some credited it with saving their lives.

The battle in Ukraine is straining Russia’s navy capability. Late final 12 months, Putin introduced the mobilisation of reservists into the military. They might obtain simply 10 to twenty days’ coaching earlier than deployment to the entrance. Fundamental coaching for soldiers within the US and British armies is about 22 weeks.

One of many convict recruits mentioned he travelled to a Wagner coaching camp within the Russian-controlled a part of japanese Ukraine’s Luhansk area. Borovkov mentioned the coaching was performed by former members of Russia’s particular forces.

“Every thing was organised on the highest stage,” mentioned Borovkov, who beforehand served with the navy drive that secures Russia’s railways. “It wasn’t that they gave me a machine gun, confirmed me the best way to shoot and that’s it. No, they defined all the pieces, and in nice element. Mining, demining, ways, taking pictures, bodily coaching. Every thing.”

The lads mentioned many of the inmates who joined Wagner had some type of navy expertise. That they had beforehand served as conscripts below Russia’s one-year navy draft or as skilled troopers. The convicts with probably the most navy expertise had been appointed squad commanders.

“Once we bought to coaching, we had been requested intimately who knew what, who had served, the place they served,” mentioned 38-year-old Dmitry Yermakov, who joined Wagner 10 years right into a 14-year sentence for kidnapping. He declined to debate his felony file. “After which, after we had been divided into items, they let the lads select their very own commanders. By that point, I had already earned some type of authority, so I used to be chosen.”

Yermakov mentioned the recruits who realised the gravity of the state of affairs and requested instructors to repeat drills had been one of the best ready for what was to come back.

“These had been the boys who had been genuinely able to go to battle,” he mentioned. Others hoped merely to run down the clock on their six-month stints, hoping they might obtain their pardon having seen as little fight as potential. Of those males, Yermakov mentioned: “It was completely clear they had been going to die.”

Paralysing worry

Three males mentioned they’d fought within the space across the japanese metropolis of Bakhmut, the place intense preventing has price hundreds of lives on each side. Wagner is spearheading Russia’s months-long push to take town, which had a pre-war inhabitants of 75,000 however is now in ruins. Prigozhin has referred to Bakhmut as a “meat grinder” and mentioned his males’s process there may be to bleed the Ukrainian military dry.

Ukrainian and Western officers have in contrast the battles round Bakhmut to World Warfare I and accused Wagner of utilizing convicts in “human-wave assaults”. Based on america, by mid-February Wagner had suffered greater than 30,000 casualties in Ukraine, together with 9,000 useless, virtually all of them convicts. Prigozhin has insisted, nevertheless, the casualty fee amongst convict fighters is corresponding to different Russian items.

Yermakov, the convicted kidnapper, mentioned some fighters misplaced their nerve within the first hours of battle. “What do they see there? Corpses ripped to shreds. And what do they do? A few of them vomit, a few of them cry, and a few of them don’t wish to climb out of the ditch. Concern takes over.”

Different fighters recalled solely the fun of fight.

“It was superb,” mentioned Andrei Yastrebov, a 22-year-old native of St Petersburg, who was serving time for automobile theft when he joined Wagner. Yastrebov additionally goes by the title Andrei Kiriyenko on social media. “A lot adrenalin. I want all actual males would be a part of Wagner. You possibly can write that. The Ukies ran and Wagner f****d them up.”

4 of the boys interviewed had been significantly injured and invalided out of Ukraine lengthy earlier than finishing their stints. They mentioned Wagner informed them time spent in hospital and rehabilitation can be counted in the direction of their six-month phrases and they’d obtain clemency regardless. Two mentioned they already have their pardons.

Yermakov lasted solely 4 days earlier than receiving a severe wound to his arm and groin in mid-December whereas dragging a wounded comrade to security. He mentioned his squad had been tasked with taking and holding a street junction close to the village of Pokrovske, on the japanese method to Bakhmut. He described his remaining day on the entrance as “utter hell”, mendacity flat on the bottom for twenty-four hours as Ukrainian tanks and mortars shelled his squad’s place and drones flew overhead.

“In a battle, you’re virtually at all times mendacity flat on the bottom. It’s the one solution to survive,” mentioned Kuzhelev, the convicted thief. He mentioned he spent two months on the entrance earlier than receiving a shrapnel wound to his arm.

“We at all times want folks ‘Completely satisfied Birthday’ after they’ve been wounded” as a result of they’ve dodged demise. “That’s what they mentioned to me.”

A brand new begin

Now free years forward of schedule, whether or not at house or going through lengthy intervals of remedy and rehabilitation, the surviving fighters are returning to a rustic the place their actions on the entrance line are lionised by many. Prigozhin has beforehand mentioned he’s giving convicts who be a part of Wagner a “second likelihood” at life, and a possibility to redeem themselves.

Earlier this month, the State Duma handed a regulation making it against the law to “discredit” Wagner fighters. The regulation, which beforehand utilized extra narrowly to Russia’s armed forces, was prolonged at Prigozhin’s request.

Prigozhin’s rising energy has not been greeted warmly by all sections of the Russian elite. In February, a long-running feud between the Wagner chief and Russia’s navy chiefs exploded into open hostility. Prigozhin accused Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the Basic Workers Valery Gerasimov of “treason” saying they had been ravenous Wagner of munitions out of non-public animosity in the direction of him.

Shoigu and Gerasimov couldn’t instantly be reached for remark. Earlier the identical month, Prigozhin mentioned he ended Wagner’s recruitment of prisoners, hinting in an interview he was compelled to take action by unnamed officers.

The 5 fighters interviewed mentioned they felt deep private gratitude to Prigozhin for recruiting them and wiping their felony data.

“We’re higher than peculiar residents,” mentioned Yastrebov, the automobile thief, now at house in his native St Petersburg. “We aren’t ex-convicts now, because of Wagner.”

In a January video, Prigozhin is proven telling injured convict fighters: “The police should deal with you with respect. Every thing has already been agreed at numerous ranges, so there isn’t any nit-picking … If vital, I actually will name and speak to the governors and so forth, and we’ll discover a answer.”

‘Now I’m clear’

For Kuzhelev, who as of February had been in a hospital in Krasnodar area for 4 months, Prigozhin had given him a brand new lease on life. Court docket paperwork present he spent virtually seven of his 29 years in jail for six separate convictions.

“The final time I used to be despatched to jail I used to be considering: ‘Nicely right here I’m once more, what’s subsequent?’” he mentioned. “I’ll serve a 12 months, one other, a 3rd, after which what? I’ll exit and what am I going to do on the skin? What am I going to do with myself, given my background?

“Nicely, now I’m clear. I’ve some cash. I can take into consideration the longer term. Take into consideration getting a mortgage to purchase an house … I’ve all this, because of our esteemed Yevgeny Viktorovich,” Kuzhelev added, utilizing Prigozhin’s patronymic as an indication of respect.

All 5 of the boys mentioned both they might stay with Wagner after their six-month service or had been significantly contemplating doing so.

Some mentioned they needed to get again to the entrance traces as quickly as they had been capable of.

Nikita Lyubimov, a local of the Volga metropolis of Cheboksary who had been serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence for grievous bodily hurt, mentioned his first precedence was “to help the lads, to get better as quickly as potential, and get again to the entrance line”. The 23-year-old acquired a shrapnel wound two months into his preliminary stint in Ukraine and was invalided out.

The lads mentioned the able-bodied amongst them had been supplied the possibility to signal on as skilled full-time mercenaries, whereas the injured had been supplied supporting roles. Borovkov, who’s getting a prosthetic arm after amputation, mentioned he was supplied a job at a Wagner hospital in Luhansk when he recovers.

Yermakov mentioned he hoped to get better sufficiently to re-enrol as a contract mercenary and hoped to be deployed sooner or later to Libya, Syria or the Central African Republic, the place Wagner operations predate the group’s marketing campaign in Ukraine. He cited restricted prospects obtainable in Russia’s civilian financial system as pushing him in the direction of returning to Wagner.

“Individuals work onerous with out days off for 12-14 hours a day, and at finest they earn 50-60,000 roubles [$672-$806] a month,” mentioned Yermakov, who has two younger daughters. “I’ll return to the [Wagner] firm and I’ll undoubtedly have the ability to earn 150,000 roubles [$2,000] a month.”

For others, a return to Wagner affords a substitute for sinking again into a lifetime of crime.

Kuzhelev mentioned he hoped navy service in Wagner would allow his younger daughter to construct a profession sooner or later with out the stigma of her father’s felony previous.

“My daughter, when she grows up, can go on to review banking or attend the police academy,” mentioned Kuzhelev. “And she or he is not going to have issues as a result of her father was in jail. Isn’t that motivation? In fact it’s.”