two Russians presented as Wagner alumni claim to have executed minors and civilians

These rare documents, if authenticated, would further confirm the cruelty of Wagner’s mercenaries. The Gulagu.net project, which denounces corruption and torture in Russian prisons, says it collected the testimonies, published on YouTube (in Russian), of two former commanders of the paramilitary group, who operated in Ukraine. During these telephone interviews, Azamat Ouldarov and Alexeï Savichev explained that they had killed civilians, including minors, during “cleaning” in the Donbass. These conversations, published on Monday April 17, were recorded for a whole week, told franceinfo the founder of the NGO, Vladimir Ossetchkine, an opponent of the Kremlin who is now a political refugee in France.

The two men, he said, are currently in Russia, having spent six months at the front. Like many Wagner fighters, says Gulagu.net, these two men were recruited from prison after receiving presidential pardons in August and September respectively. Franceinfo was unable to independently verify the identity of these witnesses, but the American channel CNN (in English) however obtained Russian documents attesting that two men bearing these names were released on these dates. These texts have also been published (in Russian) by Gulagu.net.

Grenades in a pit full of bodies

Alexei Savichev, first of all, says he was ordered to throw F-1 grenades into a pit where the bodies of Ukrainians and Russians, wounded and dead, were piled up, before douse the remains with gasoline . He says that these facts took place between a barracks and the Bakhmout cannery, between January 19 and 20. “Without the complicity of Putin and [Evguéni] Prigozhin, [Azamat Ouldarov et Alexeï Savichev] would have served prison sentences in the colonies of the penitentiary administrationcomments the Gulagu association. But the Russian authorities sent them to war, after teaching them how to kill.”

Alexei Savichev also claims to have participated, the following month, in the execution of around twenty unarmed Ukrainians, including around ten teenagers, on their return from an exchange of prisoners of war. He also explains that 70 former Russian prisoners who refused to obey orders were shot before his eyes.

Azamat Ouldarov, visibly intoxicated during these interviews, claims for his part to have shot a 5-year-old girl.

“There was the order to clean everyone up, to eliminate anything that got in the way.”

Azamat Uldarov

at Gulagu.net

According to him, the mercenaries had been given the task of executing everyone in Soledar and Bakhmout, the theaters of the most violent clashes in the Donbass. “Prigozhin told us not to let anyone out of there.” He also claims that his group killed 300 to 400 civilians in the basement of a building in Bakhmout, including dozens of children.

These testimonies were quickly commented on in kyiv. “These simple confessions are not enough”wrote on Twitter (in English) Andriï Yermak, head of the office of the presidency. “There must be punishment. Hard and fair. And there certainly will be.” “We already had heard reports of possible murders, by ‘Wagners’, of civilians, teenagers and very young children in February-March 2023 in Soledar and Bakhmout”also reacted Serhiï Cherevaty, spokesperson for the Eastern Command of the Ukrainian army, interviewed by the Ukrainian version of the BBC (in Ukrainian).

kyiv opens an investigation

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has opened an investigation for “violation of the laws and customs of war”. “It is likely that an official request will reach us to transfer our archives”, comments Vladimir Ossetchkine. But the latter adds that the Russian Investigation Committee has also “the duty to open an investigation against Yevgeny Prigojine and his entourage”if only to verify the cases of murders of former Russian detainees mentioned by Alexei Savichev.

In another video published on Tuesday, April 18, the two witnesses from Gulagu.net report sustained threats against them. But a little later, Azamat Ouldarov reappears this time in content from the Russian propaganda agency RIA FAN, controlled by Yevgeny Prigojine. He changes his tone and accuses Vladimir Ossetchkine of having blackmailed him, in exchange for his testimony. This Wagnerian push, however, was not enough to extinguish the accusations. Gulagu.net released a new video (in Russian) from Uldarov on Wednesday, late in the evening. The former combatant decides to return to the charge and reiterates his initial version, which he assumes entirely.

“If something happens to them, Yevgeny Prigojine will bear the responsibility for their death.”

Contacted by media Viorstka (in Russian)Alexei Savichev, meanwhile, claimed to have received 10,000 rubles (about 110 euros) from Gulagu, without going back on his testimony. “My informant explained to me that Savichev needed money to rent a roomresponds Vladimir Osetchkine. A Gulagu volunteer transferred this money to the informant, who acted as a middleman.” Alexei Savichev has also renewed his accusations in an interview with the Guardian : “We were torturing soldiers too, there were no rules.”

A complaint against Prigojine for “death threats”

Since the broadcast of the first video on Monday, Evguéni Prigojine has multiplied the attacks ad hominem on Telegram (in Russian) against Vladimir Ossetchkine and Gulagu.net. He first assured that his paramilitary group never fired on civilians, judging such an option “useless”, before qualifying the founder of the NGO as “maniacal” and of “degenerate”and to call to his “arrest” fast. Sign of a certain nervousness? “In the eyes of Vladimir Putinbelieves Vladimir Osetchkine, Yevgeny Prigojine’s biggest mistake was not to have killed civilians. It’s to have let some of his fighters testify.”