In the almost deserted restaurant car, the man staggers to the rhythm of the tremors of this night train leaving Rostov-on-the-Don, near the Ukrainian border, and bound for Moscow. He is looking for a bottle of vodka. He is exhausted, his eyes are dark circles. He ends up settling down on a bench seat and strikes up a conversation with the author of these lines, without knowing that I am a journalist.
This prisoner, who agreed to go and fight for many months on the front in Bakhmout, Ukraine, within the group of Russian mercenaries Wagner, in the hope of regaining his freedom, is finally freed, as promised. He returns, shocked by the horror of the fighting, and cannot help confiding. Most of his statements could be cross-checked, except for the reason for his imprisonment. The man, who revealed his identity to us, with supporting evidence, claims to have killed two people a few years ago. We were only able to find one attempted murder on a woman and two children whom he tried to burn in their bathroom, after a drunken argument. Here is his testimony.
“The goal was to aim between the two eyes”
“Prigojine came in person to my penal colony to recruit us. As I killed two people and I had almost ten years left in prison to serve, at 44, I quickly made up my mind. There were 86 of us. to join the ranks of Wagner in my colony. About twenty have returned, the others are dead or have disappeared. Today is my first day of freedom after eight months of war, I have been pardoned and decorated for having taken the risk of participating in. I have the documents proving that I did all that and that I don’t have to go back.
I came back alive because I’m a sniper, so out of harm’s way. The goal was to aim between the two eyes. I was positioned at 600-700 meters, it was very difficult. I learned to master this technique when I fought in the second Chechen war [NDLR : de 1999 à 2009]. At the time, I came back hurt and shocked. My guys were dying, there were already mutilated bodies everywhere, it was terrible.
Since then, I have traveled a difficult path. In Bakhmout, death was always before our eyes. I saw so many bodies, men with limbs torn off… At any second, your life could stop. Over there, it’s hell, the United States do what they want there, we were shot at with missiles! It was terrible, ten-storey buildings were collapsing when the planes passed. It’s a miracle if I survived, God was with me. There are many mothers waiting for their sons, on both sides. But they won’t come back.
“We were given the order to liquidate them all”
Do not listen to the soldiers of the Russian army. When did they defend the homeland? They are not in the front line: these bastards are in the back and then try to pass themselves off as tough guys.
As for the civilians, we were given the order to liquidate them all, old people, grandmothers, children… Putin had told them to leave the city! They could have been armed, had explosives on them. One day I pulled an 8-9 year old kid out of a building, she had a grenade that a wounded Ukrainian soldier had given her to ‘throw at the bad guys’. I threw the grenade out the window and the little girl was able to be evacuated.
On March 20, I hallucinated. Putin came to decorate us in person. For our courage and heroism, for taking the risk of participating in all of this. But I can’t talk about it, it’s confidential. Look, there is his signature in the booklet that goes with the medal [il le montre]. All that is politics, I’m not going to explain to you the meaning of this war, I don’t think there is any. But you have to ask Putin!
After Moscow, I will go to Togliatti [NDLR : à 1000 kilomètres à l’est], where my father, my mother and my six children live. But I don’t feel like going home. I shot people, I killed them and if I ever freak out, I have a fight with my wife, I don’t know what could happen. I’m afraid of myself.”