Inside a prison where Russia tortured Ukrainian POWs
The Olenivka POW camp, located in the Russian-occupied part of Donetsk Oblast, was a notorious Russian-controlled prison where Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages from Mariupol have been subjected to torture. The Kyiv Independent’s War Crimes Investigations Unit will name those responsible for torturing prisoners in Olenivka.
Skip to content
Edit post

Military: Wagner Group comparable to armies of Hungary, Slovakia in size

by The Kyiv Independent news desk April 2, 2023 2:34 PM 1 min read
This audio is created with AI assistance

The Wagner Group, Russia’s most high-profile mercenary outfit, is now a fully-fledged army equal in size to Hungary or Slovakia's military personnel, Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's Eastern Military Command, told the Ukrainian Channel 24.

He hasn’t specified the number of the Wagner Group troops, but Slovakia’s Armed Forces number 19,000 active personnel while Hungary’s Armed Forces have 40,000 troops, according to the World Bank 2019 data.

In the past months, the Kremlin-controlled mercenary company Wagner Group has been trying to seize the city of Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk Oblast, with the support of the Russian regular army.

Cherevatyi said that Ukraine’s forces killed 121 and injured 139 Russian troops in Bakhmut over April 1, while Russian forces shelled the embattled town 232 times.

Since the Wagner Group stopped recruiting prisoners in Russia at the beginning of February, regular Russian airborne troops and mechanized infantry have been deployed to the Bakhmut sector, the military said.

In late January, Olga Romanova, head of Russia Behind Bars, a nonprofit that defends Russian convicts, said that only 10,000 of the nearly 50,000 mercenaries recruited into Wagner had remained in service – suggesting that the rest had deserted or had been killed or wounded.

The U.S. has designated Wagner Group as a “significant transnational criminal organization” and imposed sanctions on its support network worldwide.

Support independent journalism in Ukraine. Join us in this fight.
Freedom can be costly. Both Ukraine and its journalists are paying a high price for their independence. Support independent journalism in its darkest hour. Support us for as little as $1, and it only takes a minute.
visa masterCard americanExpress

News Feed

Ukraine Daily
News from
Ukraine in your
inbox
1:26 AM

Rada's new freedom of speech chief criticizes TV marathon.

Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, the newly appointed chief of the Verkhovna Rada's Committee on Freedom of Speech, questioned the effectiveness of Ukraine's TV marathon introduced after Russia's full-scale invasion in Feb. 2022, Interfax reports.
MORE NEWS

Editors' Picks

Enter your email to subscribe

Please, enter correct email address

Subscribe

* indicates required
* indicates required

Subscribe

* indicates required
* indicates required

Subscribe

* indicates required

Subscribe

* indicates required
Successfuly subscribed
Thank you for signing up for this newsletter. We’ve sent you a confirmation email.