TASTE FOR BLOOD
I’m turning twisted convict conscripts into CANNIBALS with a passion for death, says Putin’s private army chief
THE chief of Vladimir Putin's private army has boasted he is turning thousands of convicted conscripts into cannibals.
A top Putin crony and head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin has made the grotesque claim in a video showing recruits undergoing intense military training.
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Footage shows the twisted warlord at a special training ground for elite fighters as the conscripts are going through training before being sent to the frontline in Ukraine.
Among his recruits are former inmates, including murderers and rapists, who are allowed to fight for six months at the frontline and then pardoned by Putin under a secret decree and freed.
And Prigozhin can be heard boasting he is turning those criminals into bloodthirsty killing machines - or cannibals before deploying them against Ukraine.
He said: "This is a supplementary training base for our fighters,” he said.
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"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."
Although it is not clear what the oligarch means by "real cannibals," an actual cannibal has joined the Russian mercenaries.
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Yegor Komarov was arrested after a headless body with multiple stab wounds fell out of a car and he later admitted he “nibbled to just take a taste”.
He was recruited from prison and joined the Wagner Group back in September.
Some of Russia's most notorious criminals have signed up to join Putin's war efforts in Ukraine in the latest prison-recruiting scheme.
Prigozhin, a former inmate himself, after assaulting and robbing a woman, was seen telling recruits that they will become war heroes or be shot as deserters.
And he shockingly instructed the new conscripts to kill themselves if they are captured by Ukraine.
The deal sees former prisoners fight for 180 days before being offered amnesty and released.
Earlier this month, Prigozhin, confirmed the first batch of prisoners have been released.
Parents in Russia were reportedly warned to keep their children inside as the hardened criminals returned from Ukraine.
Among those returning home, was Alexander Tyutin, 66, a killer dubbed "The Black Realtor."
He was jailed for 23 years after he hired a contract killer to execute a family of four, including two children.
After finishing a six-month stint in Mad Vlad's shambolic war, Tyutin was allowed to walk free and jetted to Turkey to be reunited with his wife.
The killer was even recommended for a medal for "courage" for his time on the frontline.
Prigozhin - dubbed Putin's chef - has become one of Russia's most powerful men controlling the country's mercenary army.
He slammed those who mock him for running a ragtag army with criminals, saying those who “were once in the army” or “once wore the shoulder straps of a general” in the “distant past”.
He said: "Live in the present.
"[This is] a war unlike anything that has happened, in the previous century or this one - except World War Two."
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He previously described his scheme as a way to allow convicts to redeem themselves.
And last week, he called on Russian lawmakers to slap a five-year prison sentence on anyone publishing "negative information" about Russian war volunteers.
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