Mamuka Mamulashvili has played a prominent role in the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine and the demise of Russia’s notorious Wagner group. He is known for his leadership of the Georgian Legion, a volunteer unit who have fought on numerous times against Vladimir Putin’s forces, including Russian hired guns and former convicts that make up the once-feared group of mercenaries.
Mamulashvili told Express.co.uk: “At the beginning of the war Wagner was more professional but most of them were destroyed.
“At this time, the terroristic company has only prisoners as mercenaries, who are not professionals.
“They have no combat experience, actually no experience of holding a weapon at all.”
Mamulashvili boasted of recent battlefield victories over Wagner, he told Express.co.uk: “Recently the Georgian Legion liquidated a Wagner unit of sixteen men. Those guys were in an intelligence unit, the most recent was an eleven-man group that was killed by the Georgian Legion. They were also Wagner Group who were also intelligence and planning an attack on a Ukrainian position.”
It has been reported that Wagner, a Russian private military company, has been recruiting former prisoners to fight in Ukraine.
According to the Washington Post, the United States estimates that Wagner has a total of 50,000 troops in Ukraine, with 40,000 of them being convicts recruited from prisons.
Other sources also indicate this recruitment of convicts, for instance, one Russian magazine has reported that Wagner is recruiting convicts from inside St. Petersburg prisons, promising them 200,000 rubles (£2,400) for six months and freedom if they survive the conflict.
Moreover, Wagner has also tried to recruit inmates from prisons in the Central African Republic.
