Wagner boss says inmates ‘do not rape women’ after releasing them in exchange for fighting in Ukraine

The head of Putin’s Wagner mercenaries has released the first group of Russian prisoners to be pardoned after fighting in Ukraine – and given them bizarre advice: “Don’t rape women, drink too much and do no good”.

The prisoners were recruited last year by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who offered them freedom from Russia’s hellish prisons in exchange for joining the country’s failed invasion of Ukraine.

After enduring six months of Putin’s meat grinder war, the inmates have now been released, with Prigozhin saying the ragtag group of convicts should be “treated with the deepest respect by society.”

But he also told them: ‘Don’t drink a lot, don’t do drugs, don’t rape women, don’t do anything useless’.

It marks the beginning of convicted murderers, rapists and robbers being allowed back onto the Russian streets after their sentences have been abolished.

The head of Putin’s Wagner mercenaries has released the first group of Russian prisoners to be pardoned after fighting in Ukraine – and given them the bizarre advice: “Don’t rape women, drink too much or do no good.”

The prisoners were recruited last year by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who offered them freedom from Russia’s hellish prisons in exchange for joining the country’s failed invasion of Ukraine

After enduring six months of Putin’s meat grinder war, the inmates have now been released, with Prigozhin saying the ragtag group of convicts should be “treated with the deepest respect by society.”

Some of the men have chosen to continue fighting for Wagner’s private army, which they joined after being freed from the hellish prisons of Russia to take part in the war in Ukraine.

Prigozhin, known as “Putin’s cook,” was seen in video speaking to a group of men – some of them injured – whose faces were blurred.

“You’ve completed your contract. They worked honorably and with dignity,” Prigozhin said in the video released by Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency.

Prigozhin said the men “should be treated with the deepest respect by society” after completing the six-month contracts they were offered to gain freedom.

Some immediately told him they were returning to war, and he hailed them as “born warriors.”

Others – including brutally convicted murderers – may return to society, fearing they will return to a life of crime.

The system devised by Prigozhin — a Putin fixer who is now fast becoming a major populist political and military figure in Russia — has resulted in tens of thousands of prisoners being released from prison.

Prigozhin (pictured laying flowers on a grave) praised the fighters for their sense of duty to the motherland

The men are officially pardoned by Putin as President.

Prigozhin said about the former convicts who survived six months at the front: “You have to understand that they are full members of society.”

He praised the fighters for their sense of duty to the fatherland.

“That’s a calling…not to be afraid of the enemy, to look them in the eye and not look away,” he said.

Yet thousands of those released to fight were killed or maimed.

Prigozhin was pictured in a morgue with the bodies of his fighters.

Critics in Russia say many convicts were heavily armed to join Putin’s war to violate human rights – and then used as cannon fodder.

Prigozhin told critics that if the prisoners did not fight, their own sons would be called to war.

Prigozhin was also filmed with wounded fighters being sent home and saying to him: “We want to thank you for the chance to start a new life, to become human from scratch.

“Thank you for the big and strong family [of ex-convicts fighting in the war]. We understand what friendship is.

“We respect you very much…

“We want to keep fighting and protect our fatherland…”

Prigozhin told them: “You have already become people.

“You were human. Just life has swinged – and swinged back….’

Among the former Wagner prisoners killed was Vadim Medvedev, 23, who was imprisoned for theft and drug-related offenses.

The convicts have been officially pardoned by Putin as President (pictured January 4)

Pedestrians look at destroyed Russian military vehicles at an open-air exhibition of destroyed Russian equipment in Kyiv January 5

Drug trafficker Dmitry Chuikin, 47, was killed in Ukraine trying to earn his freedom by staying alive for six months.

Another convict, Vadim Grigoriev – whose crimes have not been exposed – was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage.

Wagner fighters spearheaded Moscow’s offensive into Ukraine.

The group’s presence has also been reported in conflict zones such as Syria, Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic.

In September, a video surfaced of a bald man who closely resembled Prigozhin in a prison yard offering prisoners contracts to fight in Ukraine under appalling conditions.

“If you arrive in Ukraine and decide it’s not for you, we will consider it desertion and shoot you. Any questions folks?’ said the man.

“Nobody gives themselves up,” he said, adding that recruits should have grenades with them in case of capture. “When you die, your body will be transferred to the location you entered on the form.”

It was not possible to verify whether the man in the video was Prigozhin, but his company Concord did not deny that he was.

“Of course, if I were a prisoner, I would dream of joining this friendly team to not only redeem my debt to the Motherland, but also to be able to repay it with interest,” Concord quotes him as saying.