How Mercenaries, Wagner Group Are Shaping Ukraine Invasion

Mercenaries and private security have been in the spotlight after a viral video showed Russian prisoners being recruited to join war efforts.

Vladimir Putin's nation-wide draft of potentially hundreds of thousands of Russians for military training and deployment in Ukraine is ongoing.

The news signals a new chapter in the invasion of Ukraine, after weeks of reports that Russian forces were weakening and retreating from the front lines. One video recently went viral showing Russian prisoners being recruited to join the war efforts in exchange for commuting their sentences.

The recruiter for the group is thought to be Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close contact of Vladimir Putin himself, who has long denied being affiliated with Wagner, a notorious mercenary group, until this video was released.