Prisoners from "Wagner" group escape with weapons in Luhansk region

The Russian Interior Ministry has put on the wanted list six members of the so-called "Wagner private military company" who escaped from a training camp in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Luhansk region. Before arriving at the training center, they were imprisoned in Russia. A fragment of the orientation was published by Donday, and 1rnd.ru also wrote about the orientation.

Donday does not publish the part of the document with the names of the wanted persons. The fragment states that the convicts escaped on December 21-22, among them - Kyrgyz and Belarusian citizens, three citizens of Uzbekistan and one citizen of Russia. It is indicated that they are armed.

The Interior Ministry did not comment on the information for the media. The correspondents of 1rnd.ru were told that they do not disclose information about the wanted persons. The publication 161.ru also did not receive a response to the request. The head of the "PMC Wagner" Yevhen Prigozhin did not respond to the media request. According to him, in the annexed Ukrainian cities and Russia "many scoundrels are detained", and the detention of "armed people" is carried out by "Rosgvardia, police and security service of PMC".

Prisoners of Russian colonies are massively recruited to the "Wagner PMC" to participate in the war against Ukraine. They are promised significant payments and pardons after participating in battles. Representative of the US National Security Council John Kirby said in December that, according to Washington, there may be up to 40 thousand Russian prisoners in PMCs.

In many cases, these are people convicted of violent crimes, including banditry and murder. These people have access to firearms and army equipment.

In December, a prisoner was detained in Novoshakhtinsk, Rostov region, who was a member of the Wagner group, crossed the Russian border and opened fire on police. He claimed that he got lost and confused Russian police officers with Ukrainian military.

Author - Serhii Kolomiets, 02/01/2023