Reuters
As convicted murderers and rapists quickly become Russia’s new “heroes” on the battlefield in Ukraine, captured members of the notorious Wagner Group say they’ve been stiffed on payment and witnessed public executions on the frontline.
“Those who disobey are eliminated—and it’s done publicly,” Yevgeny Novikov, a former inmate recruited by Wagner, told Polygon Media and the independent outlet Mozhem Obyasnit in a new report out Tuesday. Citing recorded interviews the ex-Wagner fighters gave Ukrainian authorities, the publications said they independently verified the men’s identities.
The men’s accounts come as pro-Kremlin military bloggers lavish the mercenary group with praise for a major assault on the Ukrainian town of Soledar in the Donetsk region, where British intelligence says Russia now controls a large chunk of territory.