“I’d rather go to Wagner, there’s not such a mess there”

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About 2,000 Russian fighters captured by Ukraine have been released in prisoner exchanges. The Russian-language news portal Sewer.Realii spoke to some of them. It becomes clear that the war has left its mark.

Viktor (43) comes from a village of 3,000 inhabitants near Saint Petersburg. He has already fought in Chechnya and Georgia. He feels “much more comfortable in the war” than in his home country, he says. Since the end of July 2022, he has been deployed to Ukraine for the Veterans Mercenary Group, a private military company. The mercenaries came under fire in the Izyum region two weeks later and he was captured.

“Five of the 42 people survived,” he reports. He also talks about violence by the Ukrainians. They broke four ribs. “They tried to find out the names of officers, call signs and the number of the military unit. I said nothing.”

“Everyone Thought I Was Dead”

He calls the prison conditions ‘normal’: a cell with nine bunk beds, showers once a week, three meals a day, usually corn porridge. He was given soap, shampoo and toothpaste.

Meanwhile, his family was informed in September 2022 that he had passed away. “Everyone thought I was dead.” Then the Red Cross came to the prison, the helpers called his parents and explained that he was alive. On December 1, he returned to Russia.

In the mercenary headquarters, he received four million rubles (about 44,500 francs). He bought an apartment with the money. Now he is waiting for ‘a phone call’, says Viktor. He wants to go back to the front.

After a fight with a woman at the front

Dmitri (47) was also captured. He has gone through alcohol withdrawal. After an argument with his wife in March 2022, he enlisted for military service and signed a three-month contract. Immediately he was sent to Ukraine. He does not say when or how he was captured.

It was only after a journalist interviewed him that his family learned that he was still alive. “Yes, I am an occupier, nobody was waiting for me here,” he said at the time. After the prisoner exchange, he was told that he was obliged to return to the army.

His contract had been extended “until the end of the military special operation” in his absence. But: Dmitri wants nothing more to do with the Russian army. “I prefer to go to Wagner’s, there’s not such a mess there,” he explains.

His wife has since filed for divorce.

Source: Blick