50,000 mercenaries fight in Wagner's PMC, which costs Prigozhin $100 million a month – White House

The Hill reported the information with  the reference to the strategic communications coordinator of the US National Security Council, John Kirby.

According to White House estimates, 50,000 employees of Wagner's PMC are currently in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts from Russian prisons.

“It’s pretty apparent to us that Wagner is emerging as a rival power center to the Russian military and other Russian ministries,” Kirby said.

According to him, PMC owner Yevgeniy Prigozhin and other company officials have been recruiting convicts from prisons for combat operations on the front lines, because they are facing recruitment problems among other Russians.

Some of those prisoners have “serious medical conditions,” John Kirby added.

In addition, Kirby noted that Prigozhin spends more than USD 100 million a month to finance operations of Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine, and his private army is fighting alongside Russian troops.  At the same time, a spokesman of the National Security Council emphasized that Prigozhin was motivated by a desire to influence the situation in Russia and his close relationship with the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.

• On December 22, the United States strengthened sanctions against Wagner PMC, restrictions against which were introduced back in 2017.

• Also, according to US intelligence, the DPRK sent a batch of missiles and shells to Russia last month, which was paid for by Wagner PMC.