Wagner leader uses PR video to show off his ‘caring’ side

THE leader of the Wagner Group has launched a PR campaign to show how much he cares about his fighters.

Over the past week, Yevgeny Prigozhin has issued a flurry of statements and videos showing him backslapping weary mercenaries, visiting injured fighters at a top private hospital in Moscow and organising funerals.

Mr Prigozhin, a convicted armed robber who became one of Vladimir Putin’s most trusted fixers and head of the Wagner mercenary outfit, appears to want to be seen as sympathetic in contrast to the Russian ministry of defence which has been criticised for its callous attitude towards soldiers.

“Nobody gets left behind, no matter how badly injured,” Mr Prigozhin said in a video after watching a fighter with a spine injury use bionic legs to walk at one of Moscow’s top private hospitals.

Regular army soldiers have complained of shoddy treatment but reports from Bakhmut, in east Ukraine, have said Wagner commanders are also throwing their men forward with little care for their safety and are prepared to leave the dead and injured behind.