Soldiers used as “human bait”. In Bakhmout, a small town in eastern Ukraine, on which Russia strangely continues to push, even as it retreats elsewhere, it is Evguéni Prigojine, the boss of the Wagner forces, who is in charge. And the Russian oligarch, reputed to be close to Vladimir Putin but who displays growing personal political ambitions, seems ready to do anything to win this military trophy.
Since the beginning of October, he has been accused by Ukraine of dumping there a flood of thousands of fighters recruited directly from Russian prisons, against the promise of a salary and an amnesty. Used for several weeks mainly on the front line, and especially at night, these ex-detainees serve as “human bait”, according to several testimonies from Ukrainian soldiers in Bakhmout.
7 to 8 commandos in one night
“It starts around 6 p.m., when it’s dark,” says Anton, known as “Poliak”, 50, a member of the 93rd Ukrainian brigade, on rest since an injury. “These inexperienced soldiers are sent under our bullets for several minutes and they stay there,” he testifies. According to him, up to 7 or 8 so-called “diversion” commandos can thus be sent to a position in a single night.
“Their job is to advance in our direction so that we can fire on them and then they can locate us”, deciphers Sergii, known as “Tanthon”, major in the 53rd brigade of the Ukrainian forces, from the outskirts of the contact line. “Then they send artillery or other more experienced commandos to our positions,” he continues. Most Russian fighters fall under Ukrainian ammunition and, more rarely, some, only wounded, are captured.
“What’s your prison number?” »
That same morning, Tanthon found alive one of these Wagner fighters, former convicts who had come in regiments and called by the Ukrainians “single-use soldiers”. “In a way, he is lucky because he is still alive. Most of his comrades were killed”, comments the soldier.
In a video he shot and dating from the same day – which AFP was able to authenticate – we can see the Russian captive lying on the floor of a room, injured in the right hand and in the left leg. He is interrogated by the Ukrainian major.
– “What is the number of your prison?” “, he asks.
– “It’s Kopeika” (correctional penitentiary number 1 located in Voronezh, in the west of Russia), answers the Russian mercenary.
Mercenaries, professional soldiers and ex-convicts
The latter then indicates having joined Wagner a month ago, and having received rapid training, in three different places, the last of which was in Lugansk. All those who were with him were “convicts” recruited by the Wagner group, explains the captive. This paramilitary group, which emerged in 2014 in Ukraine, has been suspected for years by Westerners of carrying out the base works of the Kremlin in various theaters of operations, from Syria to the Central African Republic. Moscow has always denied.
The private company is partly made up of hardened mercenaries in foreign theaters, but also of professional Russian soldiers who have passed over to Wagner’s side because they are better equipped and better paid than in the army, as well as recruits without experience, and released from prison. Yevgeny Prigojine only admitted being the founder on September 26, putting an end to years of rumors.
“He transforms [les] cannon fodder soldiers »
A few days before, a video had emerged showing him recruiting inmates from a Russian prison establishment, to send them to Ukraine. To fight in Bakhmout, the boss of Wagner would have succeeded in recruiting in prison up to “2,000” detainees, according to a statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on October 16.
For Nestor, a Ukrainian soldier from the 53rd brigade, engaged on this bloody front, Evguéni Prigojine, who served for a time as a supplier to the Kremlin kitchens, “earned his nickname of Putin’s cook”. “He transforms 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 soldiers into cannon fodder,” says the fighter. The number of Russian recruits who fell at the Bakhmout front is unknown. The adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Oleksiy Arestovych, estimated “in the low range” that it was the equivalent of one company per day, or 100 to 200 men.