The boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner says his troops will no longer take Ukrainian prisoners. Now mercenaries will “kill everyone on the battlefield.”
“Kill them all”. The boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner has said that his troops will not take any more Ukrainian prisoners, in reaction to what he presents as the execution of one of his men by Kyiv forces. “We don’t know the name of our injured guy who was shot by miserable Ukrainians. But we’re going to kill everyone on the battlefield. No more prisoners will be taken.” Evguéni Prigojine launched Sunday in an audio message published on Telegram by his press service.
He was reacting to another audio recording posted on a Telegram account supporting Wagner and presented as a conversation between Ukrainian servicemen ordering the execution of a captured fighter from the paramilitary group. The authenticity of this last recording could not be verified at this stage. “When you take a prisoner, you start by taking care of him, you heal him, you don’t hurt him and you send him back home after a while by exchanging him or just like that”, Prigozhin said.
Regularly, since the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of mistreatment of prisoners constituting war crimes. The Wagner group, accused of numerous abuses in the various areas of operations where it has been deployed around the world, is currently on the front line in the battle of Bakhmout, in eastern Ukraine, which has been raging for month.
In mid-April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the actions of “monsters” Russians after a shocking video was posted on social media showing the beheading of a suspected Ukrainian prisoner of war. Yevgeny Prigojine had rejected accusations made by an NGO and a deserter from his group who claimed that the executioners of the Ukrainian soldier, visible in this video, were members of Wagner.