 Up to 20,000 Wagner Group prisoners killed within a few months. United Kingdom Defense Intelligence estimates that up to 20,000 prisoners from the Wagner Group taken to war in Ukraine have been killed and the rest are likely to be removed from the mercenary ranks soon. The scheme for recruiting inmates from prison was at its largest scale in early 2023 when about 40,000 people served under Project K. However, a significant number of prisoners are likely to continue to work for the Wagner Group as contract soldiers. Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense has taken over Wagner's prison recruitment pipeline, the Intelligence Department adds. Analysts note that the end of this Wagner scheme is a kind of a waypoint in the history of Wagner Group and in the Russian-Ukrainian War. The soldiers provided by Project K enabled Russia to seize Bakhmut, one of its few recent claims to success. The project grew Wagner into the organization which, last month, directly challenged the authority of President Putin. It also marks one of the bloodiest episodes in modern military history. Up to 20,000 convict recruits were killed within a few months. The intelligence concludes.