War in Ukraine: Russian army struggles to recruit young volunteers

An amazing and rare video is currently circulating on social networks. In a prison yard, 800km from Moscow (Russia), a man in civilian clothes recruits detainees. “I am the representative of the Wagner military company“, he says. His name is Evgueni Prigojine and he is the boss of the Wagner group, on the front in Ukraine, Syria or Mali. He is close to Vladimir Putin. That day, he offered the detainees to commit themselves for six months to the war in Ukraine, but he warned: “no one turns back, no one backs down, no one becomes a prisoner“.

In exchange, Yevgeny Prigozhin promises them freedom and forgiveness from Russia. For the founder of the site “Gulagu” now exiled in France, the Wagner group is said to have already canvassed around thirty prisons with some success. In Moscow, young people are hardly enthusiastic about going to war, despite advertising spots. “I don’t want to kill (…) I am for peace“, assures a young man. Faced with the disengagement of young people, the Chechen president Kadyrov launches this week an appeal to the regions to help the army.