The New York Times and Poland's Rzeczpospolita are among the newspapers publishing reports this week about the fate of recruits to Russia's mercenary-company, the Wagner Group.
In September, many reports were published on Russia's recruitment drive for the war in Ukraine - from Russia's prisons. "We thieves and killers are now fighting Russia's war," one former prisoner said, quoted in The Guardian.
Reports are being made with increasing frequency of the fate of these "convict-mercenaries". Poland's Rzeczpospolita reports the story of a convict - whose name has been changed to "Nikolai Troshkin" - who fled the front and attempted to regain entry to the labour camp where he had been serving out his sentence.
"Troshkin" is reported as revealing completely inadequate preparation of new recruits in the Wagner army. His camp was located near the front line, but when Ukraine attacked, it turned out they only had enough ammunition for training exercises. He fled with a colleague, assuming that all other Russians were killed as they had no ammunition.
The New York Times reports the story of Andrei Yastrebov, who has been lucky enough to return home but the report focusses on the risks this poses for Russian society.
Yastrebov had been imprisoned for theft but according to his relatives returned from the war "a changed man", apparently traumatised, "in some sort of hypnosis... without any emotions.”
Sources: Rzeczpospolita, The New York Times, The Guardian
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