Two Russians claiming to be former Wagner commanders admit to killing children and civilians in Ukraine
CNN
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Two Russian men claiming to be former commanders of the Wagner Corporation told a human rights activist they killed children and civilians during their time there. Ukraine.
The statements were made in video interviews with Gulagu.net, a human rights organization that targets corruption and torture in the country. Russia.
In video interviews posted online, former Russian prisoners Azamat Uldarov and Alexey Savichev – both pardoned by decree of the Russian president last year, according to Gulagu.net – described the action. their own in Ukraine, during the Russian invasion.
CNN could not independently verify their claims or identities in the videos but obtained Russian criminal documents showing they were pardoned by the president in September and August 2022.
Uldarov, who appeared to have been drinking, detailed how he shot and killed a 5- or 6-year-old girl.
“(It was) a management decision. I’m not allowed to leave anyone alive, because my orders are to kill anything that gets in my way,” he said.
According to Gulagu.net, testimony was given to Russian founder and dissident Vladimir Osechkin over a period of one week. It said that Uldarov and Savichev were in Russia when they spoke.
“I want Russia and other countries to know the truth. I don’t want war and bloodshed. You see me holding a cigarette in this hand. I followed the orders of this hand and killed children,” Uldarov said, describing his motives for the interview.
The Wagner Corporation is a private Russian mercenary organization fighting in Ukraine, headed by a Russian oligarch. Yevgeny Prigozhin.
It has Recruit tens of thousands of warriors from Russian prison, Free offers and cash after a six-month tour. Western intelligence officials and prison advocacy groups estimate that between 40,000 and 50,000 men have been recruited.
Uldarov said in the eastern Ukrainian cities of soledar and Bakhmut – witnessed some The fiercest battle – Mercenary Wagner “ordered to destroy everyone.”
“There is one superior of all commanders – that is Prigozhin, who ordered us not to let anyone out there and destroy everyone,” he added. CNN has previous report about Wagner veterans making similar claims.
Uldarov has since appeared to withdraw your account in a video call with the Russian news agency RIA-FAN affiliated with Prigozhin.
At one point in the interview, Savichev described how they “receive orders to execute any man 15 years of age or older”.
He also talks about getting the command to ‘scan’ a house. “It doesn’t matter if there are civilians there or not. Need to sweep the house. I didn’t reveal who was inside,” he said.
“Whether it’s a hut or a house, it’s important to make sure there isn’t a single person living inside,” he said. “You can condemn me for this. I will not object. That is your right. But I also want to live.”
Savichev said Wagner fighters who disobeyed orders were killed.
Group director Wagner Prigozhin confirmed on his Telegram channel that he had seen part of the video and threatened to punish two Wagner veterans. “For what (Osechkin) shot, I watched the videos that I could see,” he said. “I can say the following: if at least one of the charges against me is confirmed, I am ready to be held accountable before any law.”
But Prigozhin said that “if nothing is confirmed, I will send a list of 30-40 people who are defaming me like Osechkin (including a list of them, including scumbags who have escaped from Russia) to the Bureau. The Prosecutor General of Ukraine is obliged to hand it over to me for a ‘fair trial’, so to speak.”
“They will not be ‘civilians’ to us, and especially not children, whom we have never touched and have not touched. This is a blatant lie. These people (spreading lies) are our enemies, and we will deal with them in a special way.”
Earlier, Prigozhin said on Telegram: “About the execution of children, of course, nobody shoots civilians or children, absolutely no one needs this. We are there to save them from the regime they are suffering from.”
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said in a tweet Monday that the group should be held accountable.
“Russian terrorists have confessed to numerous murders of Ukrainian children in Bakhmut and Soledar. Confession is not enough. There must be a penalty. Tough and fair. And it certainly will. How many crimes like this have been committed? he say.
In February, CNN talked to two Wagner veterans who described how recruited Wagner prisoners were pushed to the front lines in a wave of people, reminiscent of World War I charges. They said deserters or those who refused orders would be killed and there would be no evacuation of the wounded.
In January, the US Treasury Department designated the Wagner Corporation as a important transnational criminal organizationand imposed a new set of sanctions against a transnational network that supported it.
The US State Department also announced a number of sanctions aimed “targeting a range of critical Wagner infrastructure – including an airline company used by Wagner, a Wagner propaganda organization and Wagner front companies,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
