Steph Deschamps / December 23, 2022
The U.S. government estimates that tens of thousands of mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner are stationed in Ukraine. White House spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that 50,000 mercenaries are deployed, including 40,000 prisoners.
He also claimed that about 1,000 mercenaries were killed in the fighting in the past weeks, and that 90% of them came from Russian prisons. In some cases, the Russian soldiers were even subordinated to commandos from the Wagner group, Kirby said. The mercenary company of Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is helping the Russian army in Ukraine.