Yevgeny N. was beaten with a hammer by his comrades until he died. This brutality was shown in a video shared on social media. But the lynched is not alone. His former commander, Andrei M., witnessed ten executions by Wagner mercenaries, he tells Russian investigative portal The Insider.
If you don’t fight, you pay with your death – that’s the credo of the mercenary group Wagner. M. knows that these executions have a system, too often he had to watch what happened. Thus, after a failed escape attempt by the Wagner mercenaries, the “traitors” were taken to the next checkpoint at the border. “The MED group came and shot them,” says M. The MED group is a responsible unit within the Wagner squad that must punish traitors.
“They make people disappear: they kidnap people and kill them in public or in hiding, as was the case with N,” the ex-commander told The Insider. The mercenary Yevgeny N. was a convicted murderer recruited for the war in Ukraine. The executed mercenary and M. served in the same unit. When they fought against Ukrainian troops, N. deserted and became a prisoner of war. M. suffered a concussion and was taken to hospital. “The next day Wagner mercenaries came to ask me about him,” he says.
Relatives do not receive any compensation
His accusations against the mercenaries go even further. “Half of the combatants killed were officially reported missing. What’s that for?” asks N. According to him, the simple reason is that they do not want to pay compensation to the family member. Officials continue to tell grieving relatives, “As long as there is no body, there is hope.”
M. is now on the run and fears for his life. Because Wagner’s mercenaries are already after him. Russian human rights activist Olga Romanova knows many cases like that of his executed comrade. “As far as I know, 40 executions have been confirmed,” she said in an interview in mid-November. But it is impossible to hold Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, also known as Putin’s cook, to account. Because: “Any investigation into the whereabouts of the prisoners is denied because it is a state secret,” she says. (jwg)