Putin Ally Sees Nothing 'Immoral' About Infectious Soldiers Fighting in War

An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said that he sees nothing "immoral" about having infectious soldiers fighting in the war against Ukraine.

In a Telegram post on Thursday, Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin was asked about reports that he was recruiting soldiers infected with diseases, to which he responded by saying: "There are no restrictions in Russian legislation for patients with hepatitis C or HIV infection. If there are such restrictions in some countries, please let us know about it, and prisoners with hepatitis and HIV will not come to fight in these countries. We respect local laws."

"I don't see anything immoral if soldiers carrying hepatitis C and HIV kill other soldiers without knowing whether they were carriers of any viruses during their lifetime," Prigozhin continued.

The remarks by Prigozhin, who is an ally of Putin, come shortly after the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine reported that the Wagner Group was recruiting Russian prisoners "who are suffering from serious infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C."

"The fact that more than 100 prisoners with confirmed HIV or hepatitis C have been 'mobilized' at Penal Colony No. 5 in Metalostroi (Leninhrad Oblast, Russia) to the Wagner PMC alone shows that this phenomenon is widespread. The Wagner Group command 'marks' the infected soldiers by forcing prisoners to wear red wristbands if they are HIV-positive and white ones if they have hepatitis," the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine said.

The Ukrainian intelligence agency also said that Russian medics have refused to treat those infected with HIV or hepatitis and noted that "there is growing resentment among other fighters, who are forced to serve alongside those infected."

Earlier this month, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) published an assessment of Russia's offensive campaign and said that Prigozhin confronted the Russian Ministry of Defense regarding "heavily relying on Wagner forces while failing to finance the group or provide necessary resources."

However, in an assessment on Thursday, the ISW said that Prigozhin denied the past reports from the U.S.-based think tank.

"Prigozhin explicitly denied ISW's October 25 assessment and falsely insinuated that ISW receives classified intelligence. ISW does not receive any classified material from any source, uses only publicly available information, and draws extensively on Russian, Ukrainian, and Western reporting and social media as well as commercially available satellite imagery and other geospatial data as the basis for these reports," the ISW said.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.