Alexey Savichev and Azamat Uldarov they were mercenaries of the Wagner Group, the paramilitary organization at the service of the Kremlin that has perpetrated some of the worst atrocities of the war in Ukraine. Both they were recruited from Russian prisons by the militia leader, Evgeny Prigozhin, and pardoned by presidential decree last summer. Both have been on the front lines and both have killed dozens of Ukrainian civilians, including children. Now they are in Russia.
[Rusia reorganiza su asalto a Bakhmut y obliga a las tropas ucranianas a ceder otra parte de la ciudad]
That is, at least, what they have told to gulagu.net, the platform in defense of human rights that manages Vladimir Osechkin, a well-known Putin dissident exiled in 2015 who since last year has helped Russian soldiers forced to go to the front to escape to the West. During their video call conversations with Osechkin, the two ex-combatants confessed have committed war crimes in Soledar and Bakhmut, two of the towns where the bloodiest fighting of the conflict has taken place.
“Do you see how I hold a cigarette in my hand? With this hand I carried out the order to kill children,” explains Uldarov, 43, his voice cracking slightly. “We went in killing everyone: women, men, elderly and childrenincluding small ones”, maintains the ex-mercenary, who assures that the order to “clean” the basement of a building with new floors in Bakhmut where between 300 and 400 civilians had taken refuge -40 of them minors- came directly from Prigozhin, who insisted on “don’t let anyone out alive”. Not even the little ones.
“There was a little girl, she was five or six years old, she was screaming, and I shot her in the head. I was not allowed to let anyone out, do you understand?”, he tells Uldarov, who reiterates that they were forced to “destroy everyone who gets in my way“.
Savichev’s testimony is similar to Uldarov’s, although neither has been independently verified. In his case, however, the ex-convict acknowledges to have murdered in cold blood both comrades and prisoners of war and offers specific details. He claims to have witnessed and participated in the execution of 70 recruits They refused to obey the orders of their superiors. “We don’t consider them Russian citizens there,” he explains. And he specifies that a mercenary was executed after a conflict in which the forces of the Chechen Ramzan Kadyrov were involved.
He also claims that he had killed at least 60 wounded Ukrainian prisoners of war and Russian mercenaries who had tried to defect to the “throw grenades” in the pit in which they were locked up in January near Bakhmut. “Then we burn their bodies“, he confesses in the video, where he also points out that his unit was instructed to kill any man 15 years of age or older.
[El líder checheno Ramzan Kadyrov: “Nazis, ya estoy en Ucrania. Rendíos o acabaremos con vosotros”]
Threats of death
After these interviews surfaced, Uldarov has since retracted his claims. During an interview with RIA FANa media outlet linked to Prigozhin, the ex-combatant has indicated that “I was drunk” when he gave the interview and that Osechkin blackmailed him. Likewise, he assures that she “had to say it because he had no other option.”
However, Osechkin, from the platform gulagu.nethas explained to the that the retraction is “proof of how quickly dissenting voices are silenced in Russia” and that the two former mercenaries have received death threats.
Leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, attends a funeral under escort.
Reuters
Prigozhin himself has appealed to the other former mercenary, Savichez, to through their social networks. “I am communicating with Aleksey Vladimírovich Savichev (call sign Kucheriai), whom we have been searching for 24 hoursbut so far we can’t find it,” he explains in a Telegram message.
“You must contact the Wagner call center and I guarantee you will not be prosecuted, legally or otherwise. You must contact the Wagner PMC call center and explain why you provided this falsehood, who is behind it about her, how he was blackmailed and if he was given any other purpose,” he continues. And he adds that if Savichev contacts Wagner’s call center and “tells everything”, “he will come out safe and sound”.
