From contractors to “prisoners”: ex-State Duma deputy spoke about the change in Russia’s losses

Yakovenko emphasized that the bulk of the dead Russian prisoners are those who were destroyed when Prigozhin staged endless meat assaults.

Over the past 5-6 months of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the picture of the losses of the Russian occupiers and the portrait of the average Russian soldier has changed. Now at the front, it is mostly not young contract soldiers of the RF Armed Forces that are liquidated, but former prisoners over 35 years old.

“The bulk of the dead prisoners are those who died when Prigozhin staged these endless meat assaults. Yevgeny Prigozhin claims that 20,000 of the Wagner PMCs died, I think that this figure is halved. Most likely, it is 40 Of course, among the dead of PMC “Wagner” the main part is made up of prisoners, because Prigozhin is very protective of the main core, the backbone of his gang, which consists of former special forces, FSB officers, GRU officers, etc. That is, they are professional military men who give the ability of PMC Wagner to have a certain combat potential, which significantly exceeds the potential of the Russian army,” explained Russian opposition journalist and ex-deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Igor Yakovenko on the FREEDOM TV channel .

According to him, the recruited “zeks” are more often sent to hot spots at the front. Such detachments are now used in attacks that are carried out in order to deplete Ukrainian troops.

“Over the last five or six months of the war, former prisoners have indeed been disposed of. That is, it was a consumable item that you don’t feel sorry for. Prigozhin proceeded from the fact that you don’t feel sorry for them at all. This is absolutely free cannon fodder, which he received as a gift from Putin and generously spent in Bakhmut,” said the ex-deputy of the State Duma.

(C)UNIAN 2023