HIV, syphilis and TB spread among Wagner mercenaries fighting in Ukraine

KYIV -- Wagner Group mercenaries are facing a foe potentially more fearsome than Ukrainian troops -- disease, say Ukrainian authorities.

The Wagner Group has been known to recruit fighters from prisons, often with little regard to their fitness.

In the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" (DPR) or "Luhansk People's Republic" (LPR), that means the mercenaries are spreading dangerous diseases.

In mid-January, the Ishchi Svoikh (Look for Your Own) Telegram channel posted a video purportedly showing a captured Wagner fighter.

The man, who said his name was Yevgeny Sizov, says he has been positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) since October 2021 and shows the camera a red bracelet, which Wagner uses to designate its mercenaries who have HIV.

Sizov said that he was wounded before he was captured and that in Russian-occupied territory he was treated alongside uninfected mercenaries.

"I was in the hospital, and we were all treated together, both the healthy and the sick. I was like a vector of HIV," Sizov says in the video.

Hospitals in the occupied territories are now refusing to treat Wagner mercenaries with such dangerous diseases, according to Ukrainian authorities.

"As many as 300 mercenaries from [the Wagner Group] were taken to municipal general hospital 15 in Katerynivka in Luhansk province," the Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement on Facebook on January 29.

"Since the majority of them are carriers of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, syphilis, tuberculosis and pneumonia, doctors are refusing to provide them with medical care," it said.

Cannon fodder

No one is particularly concerned about the former prisoners, according to Yuriy Atanov, a Kyiv political analyst now serving in the Ukrainian military.

"The Wagner fighters from the Russian prison colonies are from the least affluent, most marginalised strata of society. They were pulled into this war with promises, and the majority of them went into the war out of hopelessness because Russian prisons are a kind of torture themselves, and who's going to treat them?"

"As far as I know, Wagner has doctors but not many, and they're definitely not treating everyone. They're most likely treating only the commanders," Atanov told Caravanserai.

Wagner fighters are divided into castes split between those recruited to Wagner before 2022 and those recruited from prisons since the start of the war.

The prison inmates now in Wagner are housed in conditions suitable for farm animals, said Atanov, who is at the front.

"We take better care of our livestock than [Yevgeny] Prigozhin and his commanders do of their convicts," he said, referring to the founder and owner of the Wagner Group.

About 80% of the Wagner mercenaries coming from prison have diseases even before getting to the front, according to Eduard Bagirov, a human rights activist and director of the International League for the Protection of the Rights of Citizens of Ukraine.

"Tuberculosis, hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, skin diseases, dozens of other diseases that are transmitted at a distance or through touch, or from using the same object ... then you're off and running, and that's what's happening there," Bagirov said.

"They transmit these sores to each other because there are no conditions for medical isolation."

"When in his video Prigozhin promised them everything they'd need, including medicine, he was duping them, to put it mildly," Bagirov said.

"According to the information I've gotten, the majority of doctors who come across Wagner fighters refuse to treat them. In the best-case scenario, one in three can get a little vaseline, or a little iodine or antiseptic. That's it," he said.

Spreading disease

The spread of infections and dangerous diseases has also become a problem for Russia's regular forces.

"It's not just Wagner but also Russian troops that are in this situation. They're having a problem across the board treating infectious diseases in Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. There are no infectious-disease wards near the front," said Pavel Lisyansky, director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Security.

There have been a few cases where troops had food poisoning, he said.

"The food that was supplied for the Russian soldiers was spoiled. After consuming it, a few units came down with severe poisoning," Lisyansky told Caravanserai.

"And they don't have infectious-disease doctors, and only now does it seem like they've started calling for them in Russia," he added.

"A third factor is the water. Things are terrible with the water in the occupied territories. There aren't enough reagents to purify the water, and the plumbing has been destroyed," Lisyansky said.

The situation will worsen with the onset of spring, as warm weather will facilitate the spread of dangerous infections among the Russian soldiers and Wagner fighters, according to Atanov, the political analyst.

"I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there's an outbreak of dysentery and other infections in the occupied territories due to the poor sanitary and hygienic conditions," he said.

"In today's world, war isn't just weapons and soldiers but also good provisions and logistics. It's not enough to just send an army into war. You need to ensure that soldiers have clothes and shoes, and that they're fed and have clean drinking water and firewood for heat," he said.

"As we're seeing, the Rashist [Russian fascist] army never had provisions, doesn't have any now, and won't have any in the future," Atanov said.