War in Ukraine: Evgueni Prigojine announces having captured a Russian colonel whom he accuses of having tried to kill soldiers of the Wagner group in Bakhmout

2023-06-05 14:05:00

In a video published by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the captured Russian army lieutenant colonel pays lip service to having opened fire on a Wagner convoy.

SATURDAYYevgueni Prigojine, the boss and founder of the Russian paramilitary group Wagneraccused, on Telegram, the Russian Ministry of Defense of having wanted to trap its soldiers by mining the exit routes from Bakhmout.

“Shortly before our departure, we detected suspicious activity along our exit route. (…) We started to investigate our routes […] and we found a dozen locations where various explosive devices had been placed, ranging from hundreds of anti-tank mines to tons of plastic explosives.”he said, saying that “the people who booby-trapped these areas with explosives were representatives of the Ministry of Defense [russe]“.

“When asked why they did this, they point their finger up”, added Yevgeny Prigozhin, referring to the Russian leadership. “We can assume that these explosives were intended to accommodate Wagner’s units, although we were not marching in column.” he asserted.

He also announced that almost all of its units had left the city of Bakhmout, conquered after several months of struggle against the Ukrainian forces, leaving the recovered positions to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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War in Ukraine: Evgueni Prigojine, the boss of the Wagner group, accuses Russia of having wanted to trap its soldiers by mining the exit routes from Bakhmout

He lip service claims to have opened fire on a Wagner convoy

This Sunday, Evgueni Prigojine broadcast on Telegram a video of a Russian army colonel subjected to an improvised interrogation, visibly capture by his men. It would be Roman Venevitin, the lieutenant-colonel of the 72nd brigade. On the images, the latter seems to have been taken prisoner in what looks like a cellar, assailed by a series of questions. He responds by delivering confessions extracted under duress, his gaze lowered.

PMC Wagner detained and interrogated no other but the commander of the 72nd Brigade, Roman Venevitin. Wagner and the 72nd Brigade shared positions in Bakhmut.

They detained the man, beat him, broke his nose, and forced to record a video admitting to firing at a car of PMC… pic.twitter.com/BY3PhEV60q

— Dmitri (@wartranslated) June 4, 2023

In the video, he says lip service opened fire on a Wagner convoywhile he was alcoholic, by “personal animosity”an act of which he claims to recognize “fault”. He also slips having asked “ten to twelve” soldiers under him to disarm a Wagner rapid intervention group. “Do you think personal animosity has any place in war?”a voice calls out. “Non”loose the colonel, apathetic.