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re: WAR CRIMES: Abducted Ukrainian Children Rescued From ****roaches & Rats in Russia
Face-to-Face With Vlad's Killers Who Say: 'We are at War With The West - Including UK'
The Mirror's Defence Editor Chris Hughes meets two of Vladimir Putins' feared Wagner Group mercenary fighters held in Ukraine in a World-first exclusive interview
BBC 26 FEB 2023
Daily Mirror defence editor Chris Hughes interviewed the captives at a secret location in Ukraine
Two captured Russian mercenaries have told the Mirror how they signed up for the Ukraine frontline after being told they were at war with the West - including the UK.
Both hardened Wagner Group fighters - a convicted killer and a thug jailed for brawling - were recruited whilst behind bars by one of Russian President Putin’s top aides.
They signed up after Yevgeny Prigozhin - dubbed “Putin’s chef” - flew to their jails by helicopter and promised them “a clean sheet” and 200,000 rubles a month.
And today they told how they were thrown into the horrors of war, seeing comrades slaughtered as worthless cannon fodder ahead of the Russian Army.
One even admitted he had killed Ukrainian soldiers but did not know how many and claimed notorious Wagner Group fighters were at the front of every battle.
Anatoliy fought with the Wagner Russian paramilitary group before being captured by Ukrainian forces
Their chilling accounts, revealed in an exclusive interview to the Daily Mirror, were secured after negotiations with Ukraine’s authorities ahead of Friday’s one-year invasion anniversary.
It is believed to be the first time a British newspaper has interviewed captured Wagner Group prisoners.
Both men were clad in balaclavas for their own safety as their Ukrainian captors agreed to protect their anonymity in case they are killed if they are ever released.
Convicted murderer Viktor, a married father-of-two from Stavropolsky region in Kavkaz, southeast Russia, was jailed for stabbing a Chechen to death in a club brawl.
Already in his ninth year of a 20-year sentence he joined Wagner Group after the organisation’s founder, Bond-style villain Prigozhin helicoptered into his penal colony prison to recruit fighters.
The cold-eyed 32-year-old told the Daily Mirror: “We were told other countries were involved in the war in Ukraine, including Britain and that we were defending Russia against foreign terrorists.
“We were told we would not be fighting civilians, but fascists and soldiers from other countries.
“I had killed a man and was in the ninth year of my sentence. He was in a group of Muslims, Chechens in a club and a fight with knives started. I killed him.
“I met Yevgeny Prizoghin and in total 200 of us agreed to join Wagner Group in exchange for a fresh start, money and I would be able to get a job after leaving Ukraine.
“With a criminal record I would not get a job and I felt I had no choice, even though it took a week for me to decide to join Wagner.”
Viktor, an ex-builder, gripped his hands and stared back coldly, sometimes menacingly throughout our hour-long interview, mentioning his murdering a man with a shrug.
It was “regrettable” but he mentioned it like it was an inconvenience, a glitch in his life that was perhaps unavoidable.
Joining Wagner Group - Russia’s most notorious mercenary organisation - earned him a promised £2,200 a month and his criminal record would be wiped off.
After signing up in September last year he was taken by bus to Rostov, close to Ukraine and then to Luhansk, in Donbas, inside Ukraine, with 200 others from his prison.
Evgeny Prigozhin is close to Putin
Out of 5,000 Wagner Group fighters initially signed up for Ukraine around 1,000 died within weeks. Eventually, it is suspected as many as 50,000 were sent.
They underwent six weeks “very tough training” with assault rifles, machine guns, mines, rocket-propelled grenades and some with sniper rifles.
After training they were sent into battle in assault squads, quickly realising they were being lied to. He recalled: “I was nervous, yes. I did not know where I would be sent to and even now my family do not know I joined the Wagner Group.
“We’d be sent in groups of 15 against what they said were just ten Ukrainian soldiers, then we’d discover there were up to 40 Ukrainians.
“In the first battle a sniper was shooting, injuring our men, then he killed two. It was my first time and I saw someone lose a leg.”
Even Viktor’s experience in one of Russia’s “strict regime penal colonies” with its daily knife fights, beating and even murders did not prepare him for war.
He said: “It was very frightening. I saw arms and legs being shot off in battles. It was horrible and shocking. More than 1,000 of us were killed.”
Viktor fought with the Wagner Russian paramilitary group before being captured by Ukrainian forces
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