A prisoner from Russia, convicted of murder and attempted murder, joined Wagner’s group at the draft of Yevgeny Prigozhin, also known as “Putin’s cook”, to fight at the front in Ukraine, which surrendered to Kiev shortly after the draft. This was reported by Ukrainian journalist Yurii Butusov, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian publication Tsenzor.net, which published an interview with a Russian criminal, reports the independent Russian publication Meduza.

The detained Russian man said his name was Yevgeny Nuzhin and that he was convicted in 1999 of murder and attempted murder, served 24 years in prison, plus another 4 years for an escape attempt, and spent his last years in Penitentiary No. 1. 3 Skopyn, Ryazan region.

A Russian prisoner says that the financier of the Wagner group, also known as Putin’s private army, Yevgeny Prigozhin arrived at the colony in July, where he offered the prisoners a pardon in exchange for signing up for a military group to fight in Ukraine because “the Motherland is in danger “, offering a salary of 100,000 rubles, and if they did not return, the family would receive five million rubles.

Then more than 90 prisoners, including Nuzhin, decided to go to Ukraine and in August began the so-called one-week training, until September 2, when they received uniforms and assault rifles.

In this way, an assault squad was formed from the prisoners of the colony, which, according to Nuzhin, was “cannon fodder.”

“As I understood, the prisoners were cannon fodder. If you did the wrong thing or misbehaved, you were removed. They shot at you. This is what I call resetting to zero,” Nuzhin said.

According to him, one of the prisoners was shot because he talked a lot and buried near the “training camp”.

The Russian prisoner now wants to fight on the side of Ukraine

Nuzhin’s command in Wagner’s group lasted only a few days. On September 2, he and other convicts were instructed to search for killed and wounded Russians, and on September 4, he surrendered to the Ukrainians.

“I decided to surrender a long time ago, when I was in the camp, it all started with the fact that I was watching TV. I had a phone, I was watching YouTube. Here, in Ukraine, there is a Russian Legion, they called And then, when this mess started, I decided that when I get there, I will still give up and try to get there,” Nuzhin said.

The Russian Legion are Russian volunteers who disagree with the war that Putin started on February 24 and want to fight on the side of the Ukrainian army.

Now the captured Russian claims that he wants to fight on the side of the Ukrainians, “because Ukraine did not attack Russia. Putin attacked Ukraine. And I have relatives living here.”

This would be the second member of “Wagner” caught, Meduza notes, also referring to Yuri Butusov, who also published a video recording of a prisoner sentenced in Russia to 9 years.

The head of Wagner’s group appears to have admitted to recruiting prisoners

Back in July, the media began to report that Wagner’s group was recruiting staff from among prisoners.

Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin, also known as “Putin’s cook”, told Komsomolskaya Pravda, one of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s favorite publications, that those who do not agree to send mercenaries or prisoners to fight in Ukraine should send their children. battle, claiming that he “dreams” of joining Wagner’s group in order to “pay back the debt to the Motherland”, noted the Russian economic publication “Kommersant” and the BBC.

These statements were made against the background of the fact that on September 14, a video appeared on social networks in which “Putin’s cook” delivers a speech in prison.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Friday that the recruitment of prisoners shows that Russia is experiencing an acute shortage of infantry troops.

—-

Follow the latest developments from The 206th day of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HOTNEWS.RO