Luhansk: The first confirmed death of a native of the Middle East in the conflict occurred in Ukraine in early April when an Iraqi citizen fighting with Russia's Wagner mercenary force, according to Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, who spoke to Reuters on Wednesday.

The RIA FAN news site earlier reported that Abbas Abuthar Witwit passed away on April 7, a day after arriving at a Wagner hospital in the Luhansk, an eastern Ukrainian city under Russian control.

Inmates were recruited by Wagner from prisons to fight for Bakhmut, with the promise of a pardon if they made it through six months at the front in Ukraine.

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In response to a Reuters inquiry for comment, Prigozhin acknowledged that he had taken on Witwit from behind bars and noted that Witwit was not the first Arab national to join from behind bars.

He claimed that Witwit had "died heroically" after a good fight. Following a battle that had raged since last year, RIA FAN reported that Witwit had been hurt in Bakhmut, the city in the Donetsk province that Prigozhin claimed Wagner had taken in the middle of May.

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Prigozhin previously claimed that 20,000 of his men had died during the entire conflict. A man identified as Witwit's father is seen in a video released by RIA FAN accepting awards made posthumously in honour of his son. He also says that he encouraged Witwit to join Wagner as a "volunteer."

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He is heard saying, "Abbas always sought his freedom and wanted to be a man who defends his freedom and himself. He said he found his freedom in Russia."

In July 2021, a court in the Russian city of Kazan sentenced Witwit to four and a half years in prison for drug-related offences, according to court documents seen by Reuters. According to the records, Witwit was a first-year student at a technical college.