A former commander of Russia’s infamous mercenary Wagner Group who’s searching for asylum in Norway has apologised for preventing in Ukraine.
Andrei Medvedev mentioned he wished to talk out about his experiences within the warfare – and throughout the non-public group owned by millionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin – so “the perpetrators are punished” for his or her crimes.
“Many consider me to be a scoundrel, a criminal, a murderer,” he instructed Reuters information company. “First of all, repeatedly, and again, I would like to apologise, and although I don’t know how it would be received, I want to say I’m sorry.
“I wish to clarify that I’m not that individual. Yes, I served in Wagner. There are some moments [in my story] that folks don’t love, that I joined them in any respect, however no person is born good.”
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The 26-year-old mentioned in an interview in Oslo that he witnessed the killing and mistreatment of Russian prisoners taken to Ukraine to combat for Wagner.
He mentioned he fled over the Arctic border, climbing by barbed-wire fences and evading a border patrol with canines, listening to guards firing photographs as he ran by a forest and over the frozen river that separates the 2 nations.
A particular report revealed by Reuters final week discovered a graveyard in southern Russia. Many of the boys buried on the outskirts of Bakinskaya village within the Krasnodar area have been convicts who had been recruited by Wagner to combat in Ukraine.
Kripos, Norway’s nationwide felony police service, which has duty for investigating warfare crimes, has began questioning the previous Wagner commander about his experiences in Ukraine. He has a standing as a witness.
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Born within the area of Tomsk in Siberia, he mentioned he was positioned in an orphanage when he was 12 after the demise of his mom and the disappearance of his father.
Having beforehand been drafted within the Russian navy in 2014, aged 18, and served with the Ulyanovsk-based thirty first Airborne Brigade in Donbas, he mentioned he joined the Wagner Group after serving his final jail time period in July 2022.
After signing a four-month contract for a month-to-month wage of round 250,000 roubles (£2,884). He crossed the border into Ukraine on 16 July and fought close to Bakhmut.
“It was f***** up. The roads to Artemovsk were littered with the corpses of our soldiers,” he mentioned, utilizing the Russian place identify for Bakhmut. “The losses were heavy… I saw many friends die.”
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He led a squad, taking orders from a platoon commander and planning fight missions – and witnessed two individuals who didn’t wish to combat being shot in entrance of freshly recruited prisoners.
“The scariest thing? To realise that there are people who consider themselves to be your compatriots, and who could come and kill you in an instant, or on someone’s orders,” he mentioned. “Your own people. That probably was the scariest thing.”
He is the primary recognized fighter from the Wagner Group who fought in Ukraine to flee overseas.
The Wagner Group is a Russian mercenary organisation. It is a community of firms and teams somewhat than a single entity, and consists of a lot of convicts recruited in Russian prisons, who’ve spearheaded assaults in Ukraine.
The group has additionally turn out to be more and more influential in Africa, the place it has been constructing alliances, spreading Russian disinformation and getting access to oil, gasoline, gold and different beneficial minerals.
Source: information.sky.com”