This decision was taken by the head of the Russian paramilitary group in reaction to the publication of an audio recording which he presents as a conversation between Ukrainian soldiers ordering the execution of a Wagner fighter taken prisoner.
“Kill them all”: the boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner has said that his troops will no longer take Ukrainian prisoners, in reaction to what he presents as the execution of one of his men by Kiev forces.
“We don’t know what the name of our wounded guy was who was shot by miserable Ukrainians. But we will kill everyone who is on the battlefield. We will not take any more prisoners,” Evgeny Prigojine said in a statement on Sunday. audio message published on Telegram by its 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. AFP was unable to confirm the authenticity of this latest recording.
“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 some time by exchanging him or just like that,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin. .
Accusations of prisoner mistreatment on both sides
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.
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.
In mid-April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the actions of Russian “monsters” after the publication on social networks of a shocking video 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.
