Russia-Ukraine War: In the shadow of the continued fighting of the “Wagner Force” militia in Ukraine, alongside the Russian army, the reports of the atrocities committed by its operatives also continue. Over the past few months, the Kremlin has agreed to recruit prisoners from Russian prisons and allow them to fight in the ranks of “Force Wagner” alongside the Russian soldiers. Meanwhile, the British “Daily Mail” reported today (Monday) on the atrocities committed by some militia operators against the prisoners who chose to enlist.
Dmitri Yakushchenko, a 44-year-old convicted murderer, was released from prison to fight the war. Upon arriving at the battlefield in Ukraine, he became a deserter, and was accused of “treason and surrender to Ukraine”. Following this, some militia operatives executed him with hammer blows. Dmitri, who defected from the ranks of the militia, was quickly caught, and became the second prisoner to be executed by his countrymen.
In the horrifying video posted on Telegram, the militia operatives are seen tying a block of bricks to his head, while another person stands behind him with a hammer. Yakushchenko, wearing a military uniform, said he “realized this was not his war” after being sent to fight for President Putin. According to him, he was hit in the head in a battle in the city of Dnipro, in the center of Ukraine, and woke up later tied to a militia hideout. In the video he was told that he was “about to be tried for desertion”.
The “Wagner” group in the war in Ukraine (Photo: Vertical)
Soldiers in the Russian army during the war in Ukraine (Photo: Vertical)
After that, Yakushchenko raised his head, and one of the militia activists hit him on the head, crushing his skull, until he fell to the ground. According to reports in Russia, the prisoner was a convicted murderer and robber who had been released from prison after 19 years to join the war. He also said before his execution that his name was Dmitri, born in 1978, who was born in the Crimea. According to him, “I went to fight at the front in the ranks of the Wagner force, at the front I realized that this was not my war. I planned a way to escape, on my fourth day here I took my machine gun, some magazines and grenades, crawled somewhere, and lay down until the shooting stopped. I kept moving and it became clear to me that I had reached the Ukrainian side , and I was told that if the Russians have the opportunity to leave, they better do so.”
Last January, the weekly “Newsweek” reported that most of the prisoner fighters who fought in the ranks of the “Wagner Group” armed militia were killed or fled after the battle against the Ukrainian army near the city of Solder. The military force, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is close to President Putin, recruited during the war about 43 thousand prisoners from Russian prisons, when most of them were killed, escaped or surrendered during the fighting.
It was also reported that the “Meduza” website reported that the number of prisoners recruited by the militia had probably increased to 50,000, given the state of the Russian army on the battlefield. According to the site, Prigozhin does not keep statistics on missing persons or defectors, and instead reports them as soon-to-be-dead.