Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, has said that 32,000 former convict fighters from his private military company have returned home after their contracts came to an end. A comment by Prigozhin, released by his press service

“As of 18 June 2023, 32,000 of the people who were previously convicted and participated in the special military operation on the territory of the LPR [so called Luhansk People’s Republic] and DPR [so-called Donetsk People’s Republic] in the ranks of the Wagner Group have gone home at the end of their contracts”, - said Prigozhin.

As he added, 83 crimes were committed by these former convicts who completed their contracts, which is supposedly 80 times less than those who were released from prison over the same period and did not enter into a contract with the Wagner Group.