Vladimir Putin has a ‘squadron of liquidators’ to publicly execute deserters, former convicts who were drafted into the Ukraine war have claimed.
Inmates who were transferred from their prison cells to the war’s front lines with the Wagner Group of private mercenaries say they have witnessed disobedient comrades being killed by commanders.
Former convict Yevgeny Novikov said in a report by Polygon Media and the independent Mozhem Obyasnit outlet: ‘Those who disobey are eliminated — and it’s done publicly.’
He said the ‘squadrons of liquidators’ deal with troops considered to be problematic.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is pictured pardoning former inmates who served six months fighting in Ukraine
He recalled: ‘Shelling began, one of the prisoners laid down and didn’t cover his own [men].
‘The shelling stopped, he went back, and the higher-up shouted to him: “Why didn’t you go forward?” And they killed him. The higher-up is killed if his team deserts.’
Another ex-convict, Alexander Drozdov, a former inmate who was recruited by the Kremlin’s private army, said many in his ranks are ‘completely insane’, with killers, rapists and drug addicts fighting Putin’s war.
He said some prisoners disobey orders but others are ‘just f***ed up and bulldoze their way through’.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin recruited inmates by offering them freedom from Russia’s hellish jails in return for joining the country’s failing invasion of Ukraine.
Last week, the first batch of Russian prisoners to be pardoned after fighting in Ukraine returned home, and Prigozhin offered them the bizarre advice ‘Don’t rape women, drink too much or get up to no good’.
Last week, the boss of Putin’s Wagner mercenaries released the first batch of Russian prisoners to be pardoned after fighting in Ukraine
A view shows military uniform amid debris of a destroyed building purported to be a vocational college used as temporary accommodation for Russian soldiers
Having survived six months of Putin’s meatgrinder war, the inmates have now been released with Prigozhin saying the ragtag group of convicts should be ‘treated with deepest respect by society’.
It means the start of convicted murderers, rapists and robbers being allowed back onto Russian streets with their sentences wiped out.
With Russian casualties continuing to mount to staggering numbers, Putin employed the Wagner Group to recruit prisoners to bolster troop numbers.
The scheme pioneered by Prigozhin – a Putin fixer now rapidly turning into a major populist political and military figure in Russia – has led to tens of thousands of prisoners being allowed out of jail.
The men are formally pardoned by Putin, as president.
Prigozhin said of the ex-convicted who have survived six months at the front: ‘It is necessary to understand that they are fully capable members of society.’
Critics in Russia say many convicts were strong-armed to join Putin’s war in an abuse of human rights – then used as cannon fodder.
Prigozhin told critics that if prisoners were not fighting, their own sons would be called to the war.
Last month, a Ukrainian military advisor said Russian prisoners were being ‘killed in big quantities’ after being pushed to the front lines.
A senior US military official also said the convicts are being used to ‘take the brunt’ of Ukrainian fire to clear a path for ‘better trained forces’.
Among Wagner ex-prisoners killed were Vadim Medvedev, 23, jailed for theft and drugs offences.
Ukrainian military fire an anti-aircraft weapon, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Bakhmut
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner Group private military company, went to a penal colony in Mordovia to offer prisoners a chance of freedom in exchange for fighting in Putin’s war in September
He told the inmates they will be pardoned if they survive six months in the war against Ukraine. They should take their own lives instead of being taken prisoner, he said
Drug trafficker Dmitry Chuikin, 47, was killed in Ukraine seeking to earn his freedom by staying alive for six months.
Another convict Vadim Grigoriev – whose crimes were not revealed – was posthumously ordered the Order of Courage.
Wagner fighters have been at the forefront of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.
The group’s presence has also been reported in conflict zones including Syria, Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic.
In September, Prigozhin was seen in a jail courtyard, offering contracts to prisoners to fight in Ukraine with a chilling set of conditions.
‘If you arrive in Ukraine and decide it’s not for you, we will regard it as desertion and will shoot you. Any questions, guys?’ said the man.
‘No one gives themselves up,’ he said, adding recruits should have grenades on them in case of capture. ‘If you die, your body will be repatriated to the place you wrote down on the form.’