Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a voice message published on Monday that his Wagner group was not recruiting fighters at present but was likely to do so in future.
The future of Wagner and Prigozhin has been unclear since he led a short mutiny against the Russian defence establishment in late June and the Kremlin said he and some of his fighters – who have fought in some of the fiercest battles of the Ukraine war – would leave for Belarus.
Yevgeny Prigozhin on his “March to Moscow” in June.Credit: AP
Despite that, Prigozhin attended a meeting with Putin five days after the mutiny and was photographed last week in St Petersburg, where President Vladimir Putin was hosting African leaders.
“Today we are defining our next tasks, whose outline is becoming clearer and clearer. Undoubtedly, these are tasks that will be carried out in the name of the greatness of Russia,” a voice sounding like Prigozhin’s said in the message. It was published on Grey Zone, a Telegram channel affiliated with Wagner.
After the June mutiny, the Kremlin said Wagner fighters who had not taken part would transfer to the regular army, signing contracts with the Defence Ministry.
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Apparently alluding to this, Prigozhin said in the voice message that “unfortunately” some of his fighters had moved to other “power structures”, but he said they were looking to return.
“As long as we don’t experience a shortage in personnel, we don’t plan to carry out a new recruitment,” Prigozhin said.
“However, we will be extremely grateful to you if you keep in touch with us, and as soon as the Motherland needs to create a new group that will be able to protect the interests of our country, we will certainly start recruiting.”
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