Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, defended the training efforts of his new recruits swept up from Russia’s penal system and assigned for deployment to the Ukrainian front lines, saying “they will be real cannibals.”
The term is not intended to be a literal interpretation, explained Rebekah Koffler, a Russia expert and former intelligence officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency for Russian Doctrine and Strategy.
The expression is intended as a way for Prigozhin to claim that he is turning his convicts into fighting machines as they prepare for the war front in Ukraine.
A man places flowers on the coffin during the funeral of Dmitry Menshikov, a mercenary from the Russian private military company Wagner Group, killed during the military conflict in Ukraine, at the Alley of Heroes at a cemetery in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on 24 December 2022.
(REUTERS/Igor Russak)
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In a video shared by the Daily Mail on Tuesday, Prigozhin spoke as Wagner’s forces trained behind him, saying: “This is a supplementary training base for our fighters.”
“The main training is in Molkino and here experienced fighters receive additional training in their specialties,” he said, referring to where Wagner’s main base is located in Russia. “Here real cannibals are made.”
Wagner began offering Russian convicts the chance to fight in the Ukraine and, in exchange, securing their release from prison, regardless of charge.
Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin attends the funeral of Dmitry Menshikov, a Wagner group fighter who died during a special operation in Ukraine, at the Beloostrovskoye cemetery outside Saint Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, December 24, 2022. .
(AP Photo)
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As long as a convict can survive on the front lines for a period of six months, they can return home without serving their full prison term.
Although Wagner’s forces receive ammunition and equipment from the Russian defense ministry, they do not work or function as part of the Russian military forces.
Prigozhin, a Putin ally, has concentrated his forces in the most disputed regions in Ukraine such as Donetsk and claimed that Russia’s recent victories were due to his forces, not Russia’s military.
People in military uniform, claiming to be soldiers from the Russian mercenary group Wagner and its boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, pose for a photo believed to be at a salt mine in Soledar in Donetsk region, Ukraine, in this photo released on 10 January 2023.
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Although the Russian military has tried to distance itself from the brutal group of mercenaries, it claimed earlier this month that Russian military units and the Wagner Forces worked in a “mixed” effort to secure the fiercely contested town of Soledar.
The United States estimates there are about 50,000 contract soldiers in Ukraine, with about 10,000 believed to be professional contractors, while 40,000 are convicts recruited to fill in flag numbers on the ground.
