Russia ramping up prisoner recruitment
A Russian soldier walks in the rubble in Mariupol’s eastern side, where fierce fighting takes place between Russian and pro-Russia forces and Ukraine on March 15, 2022.
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Russia’s Defense Ministry has been ramping up a plan to recruit Russian prisoners to fight in Ukraine since the start of 2023, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defense.
It’s likely that up to 10,000 convicts signed up in April alone, the ministry noted in its latest intelligence update on Twitter Wednesday.
Russian prisoners have been a key pool of recruits for the Wagner Group private military company’s operations in Ukraine since last summer, but the group lost access to recruiting from Russia’s penal system, likely when its public feud with the defense ministry was escalating, the U.K. said.
Russia’s latest prisoner recruitment campaign is part of a broader, intense effort by the Russian military to bolster its numbers, the U.K. said, “while attempting to avoid implementing new mandatory mobilisation, which would be very unpopular with the Russian public.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Kremlin acknowledges ’emotions are boiling over’ in Bakhmut
Ukrainian soldiers of the 80th brigade firing artillery in the direction of Bakhmut as the Russia-Ukraine war continues in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on April 13, 2023.
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The Kremlin’s spokesperson acknowledged that the “special military operation” in Ukraine is complex, particularly in Bakhmut, but said he had no doubt that the besieged Donetsk town “will be captured and will be kept under control.”
“The special military operation continues. It is a very, very difficult operation and of course certain goals have been achieved in a year,” Dmitry Peskov told a Bosnian Serb television channel ATV on Wednesday in comments translated by Google.
The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces claimed Wednesday that Russian forces had been pushed…
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