The head of the notorious Wagner Group mercenaries has boasted how he's training Russian prisoners to become "real cannibals" as they join his force in Ukraine.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as 'Putin's Chef', has previously been seen visiting prisons across Russia, recruiting lags to help with Vladimir Putin's war effort in exchange for the promise of freedom.
Murderers and rapists are among those who agreed to fight for six months, having been told Putin will then pardon them under a secret decree.
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New footage shows Prigozhin at a Wagner Group training ground, boasting that he is transforming thousands of Russian prisoners into hardened killing machines.
Speaking as his forces underwent intense training, he said: "This is a supplementary training base for our fighters.
"The primary training is in Molkino [Krasnodar region], and here experienced fighters are given additional training in their specialties.
"So they raise young eagles there [in Molkino].
"And here they make real cannibals."
Prigozhin also mocked his critics, who say his mercenaries are a ragtag army suffering appalling losses.
He slammed those who "were once in the army" saying: "Live in the present.
"[This is] a war unlike anything that has happened, in the previous century or this one – except WW2."
Prigozhin is a former prisoner himself after he was jailed for assaulting and robbing a woman.
It has previously been reported he has recruited at least one "maniac" killer convicted of cannibalism and "hundreds of murderers".
Olga Romanova, of human rights group Russia Behind Bars, told Mozhem Obyasnit: "We have started to hear that he has begun taking rapists, too."
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