Wagner’s former mercenary admitted in an interview with The Guardian that he had killed and tortured dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war. The former commander says he does not regret anything and does not know how he managed to escape from Ukraine.

Oleksiy Savichev, 49, a former Russian prisoner recruited by Wagner’s group last September, told The Guardian in a telephone interview that he participated in the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war during the six months he fought in eastern Ukraine.

“We were told not to take prisoners and shoot them on the spot,” Savichev said.

During the fighting near Soledar in the east of Ukraine last fall, Savychev claims that he participated in the murder of 20 Ukrainian soldiers who were surrounded.

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“I searched them”

“We peppered them with our bullets,” he said. “It’s a war now, and I don’t regret anything I did there. If I could, I’d go back.”

On another occasion, in January, Savichev, together with other Wagnerites, killed “several dozen” wounded Ukrainian prisoners of war by “throwing grenades” into the trench where they were being held near the town of Bakhmut. “We also tortured soldiers, there were no rules,” Savichev said.

Savichev’s account was first published on Monday by human rights group Gulagu.net in a one-hour, 17-minute video in which he appears alongside another former Wagnerian fighter, Azamat Uldarov, who also claimed to have killed civilians, including children, during the battle for Bakhmut.

Uldarov reported that he, together with other mercenaries, killed a group of people who hid in the basement of a nine-story residential building in Bakhmut, including a little girl.

“She was screaming, she was a small child, she was five or six years old, and I shot her, a fatal bullet. I was not allowed to release anyone, do you understand?” – said Uldarov to the head of the human rights group Gulagu.net Volodymyr Osechkin.

Shortly after these statements Uldarovhe appears to have dropped the suit, suggesting he was blackmailed into doing these things.

Medals for the Battle of Soledar

The Guardian cannot independently verify the chilling claims made by either man, but has seen Russian criminal documents which show that Savichev, who was convicted of murder, was released from prison in Voronezh, a city in south-west Russia, following a presidential pardon on 12 September 2022

“Wagner” recruited tens of thousands of prisoners, including convicted criminals, to fight in eastern Ukraine. They were offered release if they survived a near-suicidal six-month period, which Savichev completed on March 12.

Savichev also provided The Guardian with photographs of two medals he said he received for the battle of Soledar, a town in eastern Ukraine that Wagner’s forces captured in early January.

Rare evidence

His testimony appears to add to the body of evidence shedding light on war crimes committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

Savychev’s testimony is rare because the former mercenary is still in Russia.

Savichev said he had been on the run since his first interview on Monday and had received “several” threats.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary leader of the “Wagner” PMC, claims that the testimony of the two former soldiers is “outright lies” and that those under his command “did not touch and never have touched” children.

Savichev fears he will suffer the same fate as Yevgeny Nuzhin, a convicted felon recruited by Wagner who surrendered to Ukrainian forces but was later handed over to Russia and executed with a sledgehammer, setting an example for those who betray the Prigozhin-founded group.

Savichev also said he witnessed numerous executions of other Wagner fighters accused by their commanders of disobeying orders or violating a “code of conduct,” including drinking alcohol.

“The army is full of cockroaches”

Savychev said he joined Wagner’s group after Prigozhin visited his colony IC-12 in Voronezh in September 2022.

“Prigogin came to our prison and said that he was looking for murderers. He said that the regular army is full of scumbags who don’t know how to do their job,” Savichev said.

Savichev claims that just over 100 prisoners from IC-12 in Voronezh signed up to fight with Wagner and only 21 returned alive.

“We were, in fact, just meat for our commanders, I still don’t know how we survived,” said Savichev. “Nobody cared about us.”

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