The founder of “Wagner” Yevgeny Prigozhin refused to say whether the alleged execution by the sledgehammer of a new defector was indeed the case. Instead, his group’s Telegram channel posted a new video in which the man appeared and thanked him for being “forgiven,” according to Reuters and the BBC, according to News.ro.

After the publication of the first video of the shooting of the alleged deserter from “Wagner” Dmitry Yakushchenko, the Russian publication “Ostrozhno Media”, headed by the famous Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak, asked for confirmation, and the founder of “Wagner” Yevgeny Prigozhin responded to the channel on his Telegram in a cryptic style, suggesting that that this is staging, manipulation: “Ksyusha, don’t take everything so dramatically.

Children are having fun. You thought that the film about Yakushchenko is a one-episode drama… But if you want, we can share the next episode with you,” Prigozhin wrote.

Then the Prigozhin channel published a video called “Yakushchenko”, in which the character from the first film seems to appear in front of a concrete wall and says that, to his shame, he was captured by the Ukrainian military, but brought valuable information that saved the lives of his colleagues. “For that reason, I was forgiven, for which I am extremely grateful,” he says. Above is the message “Dmytro Yakushchenko – well done.”

Reuters said it could not immediately verify the authenticity of either of the two videos, the order in which they were taken or whether the character, who said he was born in Crimea and recruited from prison by Wagner’s group, was speaking freely. or under the name of coercion.

Prigozhin’s Zona Gray channel compared the man dubbed “Yakushchenko” to Yevgeny Nuzhin, another man depicted as a defector from Wagner who was also shown on video in November being executed by sledgehammer.

In a rare interview with a Russian military blogger last week, Prigozhin said the sledgehammer was a “beautiful tool” and symbol, but said he knew nothing about whether it was used to punish traitors.

The confusion deliberately cultivated by Prigozhin makes the status of the so-called Yakushchenko unclear at the moment – there is no confirmation that he is alive, despite Prigozhin’s messages in Telegram. It is possible that Yakushchenko returned to Wagner because of the exchange of prisoners, but this has not been confirmed, the BBC writes.

In the first video, published on Monday by the Gray Zone Telegram channel, he admitted that he fled to the Ukrainian side, after which he was captured and returned to Wagner. The imaginary “execution” with a sledgehammer, filmed in the basement, was presented as a “traitor’s trial.” In a second video on Monday, Yakushchenko said: “At Wagner, everyone has the right to correct their mistakes. When I was captured, I said all kinds of nonsense, and I’m still ashamed, but it was the only way to survive. After returning from captivity, I brought a lot of valuable information that saved the lives of many boys, so I was forgiven, for which I am very grateful.”