 Up to 80% of Russian convicts used by Wagner die in Ukrainian battlefield. The White House announced it will designate the Wagner Group, the Russian private military companies supporting Moscow's war on Ukraine, as a transnational criminal organization, hitting it with sanctions and limiting its ability to do business around the world. Declaring Wagner a transnational criminal organization freezes its assets in the US and prohibits Americans from providing funds, goods or services to the group. It will give us more flexibility, John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said in an interview with VOA. We were already sanctioning Russia writ large across the board, and some of these sanctions and export controls we know also tangentially had an effect on private military contractors like Wagner, but this is really targeted towards Wagner specifically. He said, on the sanctions that will be put into effect by the US Treasury Department, Kirby said the US is urging other countries to target the group, led by Yegevniy Aprygozin, a Russian oligarch and confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last month, the White House confirmed that Wagner deploys about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine. 40,000 of them recruited from Russian jails. Olga Romanova, Executive Director of the Civil Rights Movement Russia Behind Bars, told that prisoners who agree to sign the contract with Wagner are paid about $3,000 a month. By the end of 2022, the desire to go serve in Wagner Group in Ukraine has diminished significantly among the Russian convicts, she told, citing extra judicial executions, unfulfilled promises and extremely high casualties. Experts who study the group say up to 80% of Russian convicts used by Wagner die in Ukrainian battlefields. Out of thousands of Wagner recruited convicts, only 106 were pardoned and allowed to go home after the fulfilment of their six-month contracts, Romanova said. They're just throwing them into this meat grinder in the Bakhmut and Solidar areas. And they're paying a heavy price for it, Kirby said, referencing two Ukrainian towns that are the focus of recent intense fighting. Kirby spoke of mounting tensions between Prygozin and the Kremlin, accusing the Wagner founder of making himself seem more relevant and more viable than even the Russian military, while trying to fill his own coffers.