Russia's Wagner Group aims to recruit 30,000 new fighters, targets Kremlin official as next scapegoat.

Russia's Wagner mercenary group plans to recruit around 30,000 new fighters by mid-May, according to its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. The recruitment centres, which opened in 42 Russian cities, are hiring on average 500-800 people a day. The group has sustained heavy losses while leading Russian efforts to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. In January, the US assessed that Wagner had about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, including 40,000 convicts Prigozhin had recruited from Russian prisons with a promise of a free pardon if they survived six months.