BREAKING NEWS: Zelensky will be in Paris as early as tonight. This is excellent news and a good sign for relations between the two countries. When will Berlin be next? Source: LCI/TF1
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A Wagner recruiter promises death for a deserter
26/ One Wagner recruiter told convicts: "If anyone surrenders, he will be traded for 15 people [from among the captured Ukrainians], for 20, as many as necessary, and in front of the formation he will be shot as an example."
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Russian forces wound four, including a child, in Kharkiv Oblast shelling
On the afternoon of February 8, Russian troops shelled the village of Varvarovka and the city of Vovchansk in Kharkiv Oblast, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration. As a result, 4 people were wounded, including a 10-year-old boy.
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Wagner may stop recruiting foreigners
Wagner may also no longer be recruiting foreigners, following backlashes against the deaths of African convicts who joined it. Zambian Lemehani Nyirenda and Tanzanian Tarimo Nemes Raymond both died in Ukraine last year, causing diplomatic problems for Russia.
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Factory struggles with orders, staff shortages, and Prigozhin’s impact.
20/ "They got a state order to sew shoes and overalls for the mobilised men, they fell far short of their quotas, plus then Prigozhin flew in, and a hefty chunk of those who worked in the industrial zone also left. So they're correspondingly short-staffed. They are panicking.
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Forced into Wagner under threat of punishment
13/ Some prisoners were reportedly forced to join Wagner. "They threatened them with solitary confinement, threatened to take them to a secure facility somewhere in the administration building. They forced those who were undesirable to the administration to leave in this way."
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Prisoner’s question about survival rate silences speaker
12/ And one particular question hit him in the eye, as they say in prison: "How many percent of our people who left are still alive?" At this point he started stammering, he couldn't answer anything and ended his speech altogether".
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Russian convicts recount losses at Bakhmut
A convict in a penal colony says that a recruited convict serving near Bakhmut told him, "He regretted going there. He said that 20 percent of those who left here are still alive." In a Yaroslavl penal colony, at least 30-40 out of 110 convicts recruited in 2022 have been killed.
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Wagner struggles to recruit Russian inmates
The independent Russian media outlet Mediazona reports that Wagner, which is now desperately short of manpower after the battles for Bakhmut and Soledar, is not having much success in finding replacements among Russia's convict population.
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Fear of losses deters Russian prisoners from Wagner
Huge numbers of casualties in eastern Ukraine have left Russian prisoners wary of joining the Wagner Group. As many as 80% of those from some penal colonies are said to have been killed, which has deterred those remaining from signing up to fight.