Prigozhin confirmed that PMC “Wagner” stopped recruiting mercenaries

The founder of PMC “Wagner” Evgeny Prigozhin confirmed that the company has stopped recruiting new mercenaries.

Prigozhin’s statement, distributed through the Gray Zone telegram channel, states that the PMC does not experience a shortage of personnel and no new recruitment is planned.

According to Prigozhin, at present the PMC continues its activities only in Africa and in training centers in Belarus.

Earlier, PMC “Wagner” temporarily suspends the work of regional centers for the recruitment of mercenaries, reported the Telegram channel, which posts advertisements for employment in this private military company. It says that now there is no urgent need to recruit new recruits “due to the availability of a large personnel reserve.”

After the mutiny of PMC “Wagner” on June 23-24, recruitment points for mercenaries began to close. Billboards with advertisements for employment in a private military company began to be dismantled from the streets of Russian cities.

At the beginning of July, Telegram channels associated with PMC “Wagner” published messages about the suspension of the recruitment of mercenaries for one month due to “temporary non-participation” in the war with Ukraine and the company’s move to Belarus. However, as the Russian service of the BBC found out, after calling the recruitment centers in Russian cities, a week after the mutiny was called, the recruitment of mercenaries continued.

• On June 23–24, the mercenaries of PMC “Wagner”, which had tens of thousands of armed fighters and heavy equipment and actively participated in the war in Ukraine, under the leadership of Prigozhin, made an armed march to Rostov-on-Don and Moscow, demanding the resignation of the military leadership. The Russian authorities characterized these actions as rebellion. The movement of the columns stopped after negotiations with the participation of the Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko. It was announced that no one would be punished for participating in the rebellion, and PMC “Wagner” would relocate to Belarus.
• On July 23, at a meeting in St. Petersburg with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alexander Lukashenko said that the “Wagner” mercenaries who had arrived in the country were “asking for the West”, and hinted that they wanted to organize some actions on Polish territory. Putin did not comment on Lukashenko’s words, only smiled. NATO countries have previously expressed concern about the arrival of mercenaries in Belarus.