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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Sami Quadri

Russian military contractor ‘recruiting convicts with serious diseases in bid to raise numbers’, says UK

Russia Wagner Group United Kingdom Yevgeny Prigozhin Ministry of Defence Ukraine Black Sea Fleet United Nations

A Russian military contractor is recruiting convicts with serious medical concerns including HIV as part of an approach that prioritises “numbers over experience or quality”, British defence chiefs have warned.

In its latest intelligence briefing, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that the Wagner Group could be hiring some of the convicts to help construct a 200km fortified line of defence in eastern Ukraine.

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