“Take no prisoners – shoot everyone immediately. Civilians and soldiers, adults and children.” Russian prisoners who fought for the Russian Wagner forces in Ukraine testify in several new interviews about extensive war crimes. – I killed children with my own hands, says the former Wagner soldier Azmat Uldarov in long interviews that have been published by the Russian human rights group Gulagu.net and translated by several international media. When the Russian forces came to Soledar and Bachmut, they were ordered to kill everyone, he says. Among other things, a group of civilians who had sought shelter in the basement of a nine-storey building. – She screamed, a little girl. I don’t know if she was five or six. And I shot her. A direct shot to the head. I wasn’t allowed to let anyone go, you understand? Uldarov and another man who has allowed himself to be interviewed, Alexei Savityev, are two of tens of thousands of people who, with the Kremlin’s blessing, have been recruited to the front from Russian prisons, against promises of earlier release. “There were no rules” – We were told not to take any prisoners, but just shoot them on the spot, says Aleksej Savitjev in a telephone interview with the British Guardian. The 49-year-old recounts how on one occasion last autumn, he and his comrades surrounded 20 Ukrainian soldiers near Soledar, after which they “sprayed them with bullets”. – We could torture soldiers too. There were no rules. In January, they killed “dozens” of Ukrainian prisoners of war by throwing grenades into the trench where they were being held. Savitjev, like several Wagner soldiers before him, testifies to severe punishments within his own ranks, where breaking the rules or refusing orders led to summary executions. The two men allege that Wagner’s leader and financier Yevgeny Prigozhin personally ordered the executions. All in all, they claim to have killed more than 20 Ukrainian children and young people. One flees, one turns The information is difficult to verify more closely, but the information about the men’s sudden release is correct. Alexei Savityev was convicted of murder and held in a penal colony in Voronezh when he was formally pardoned by the presidential office in September. In exchange, as a rule, they must serve for six months, which means that Savitjev had to leave in mid-March. Gulagu.net shows some documents and pictures that support that Savityev and Uldarov have fought in Ukraine. The Guardian has seen pictures of medals that Savitjev claims to have received for his work in Soledar. When the first interviews with Gulagu.net were published, the two ex-soldiers were in Russia. Aleksei Savitjev says he is on the run and fears for his life. On the contrary, Azmat Uldarov has appeared on Yevgeny Prigozhin’s own propaganda site Ria Fan, where he states that he has been blackmailed and forced to voice his criticism of Wagner. There it is also emphasized that Gulagu.net and its head Vladimir Osetchkin have been labeled as “foreign agents” and are being investigated by Russian authorities for having said prohibited things about the military. Beheading and hammer Yevgeny Prigozhin consistently denies that the Wagner forces commit any war crimes or kill civilians, contrary to a steadily growing body of evidence. Last week, video clips appeared to show Wagner soldiers slitting the throat of a Ukrainian soldier. In the past, the group and Prigozhin himself have highlighted film clips where deserters are beaten to death with sledgehammers, which Aleksey Savityev highlights when he talks to The Guardian. – I was in Wagner, I know what they can do to those who speak out, he says.
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