The last message from a Russian prisoner recruited for the invasion of Ukraine “They take me to shoot me, they want to kill us all”

In a disturbing new strategy, the Russian government is reportedly hiring prisoners to fight in Ukrainetask previously entrusted to the private militia of the Wagner Groupas several convicts revealed to the American chain CNN.

For months, Russia has used the Wagner Groupthe businessman mercenaries Yevgeny Prigozhin, recruit prisoners in exchange for the promise of pardons. According to the NGO Russia behind bars, who watches over the rights of the convicts, the convicts sent to the front were a few 50,000.

THURSDAY, Prigozhina strong ally of the president Vladimir Poutine, advertisement that Wagner had stopped recruiting prisoners to fight in the Ukraine, stating that “those who now work for us fulfill all their obligations”.

But the announcement would hide a simple change in strategy: from now on, the prisoners would be hired directly by the Department of Defense.

CNN published testimonies of several convicts who worked for a unit known by their number “08807”. All claimed to have been hired directly by the ministry headed by Sergei Shoigu.

Some had documents suggesting that they had eventually been assigned to an element of the separatist army of Lugansk, which was subrogated to the Russian Defense Ministry. unit 08807 was deployed in October on the fronts around solderknown as the “Shtrum” brigade – to attack the Ukrainian lines – and suffered catastrophic losses.

Convicts also reported mistreatment on and off the battlefield.

They cite in particular the case of Viktor Sevalnevsupposedly executed after most of his comrades were killed in an assault on a factory outside solder.

“They take me to shoot me. I lost a lot of people there. Remember this: don’t send more people here. Enough is enough, they want to kill us all,” he said in audio obtained by CNN.

Three other survivors from the unit spoke with CNN from the hospital and on condition of anonymity for security reasons. One of them, also a former prisoner, said that Sevalnev was wounded once, but was sent back to the front, where he was again wounded.

“Here nobody is operated, nobody is operated”, said. “People are walking around (in the hospital) with gunshot wounds, with shrapnel stuck in their legs.”

The soldier described catastrophic casualties. “Our battalion was 130 people, but we also have a lot of amputees, and we probably have 40 people left,” he said. Over time, many different groups of prisoners were added to his unit. He said his unit had only 15 survivors and that 08807 was now called 40321, or “Storm unit”.

“In short, the meat grinder“, he added. counted CNN that in recent days he had been sent back to the front, his wounds unhealed.

The death tolls of prisoners sent to the front coincide with estimates by the independent NGO Russia Behind Bars, according to which 80% of prisoners recruited to fight in Ukraine are dead or missing.

Another detainee said he was serving a sentence for manslaughter when he was directly recruited by the Ministry of Defence. He lamented that they did not receive the medical care and benefits that Wagner boasted of providing to his recruits.

He described how one battle left half his unit casualties. “They sent us to the front. I told them on the radio that they were shooting at us with mortars, to aim a little to the right. And they kept shooting at us from both sides. Then I understood that they were deliberately shooting at us.”.

Vladimir Osechkinfrom the prisoners’ rights group Gulagu.netsaid CNN that the Ministry of Defense seemed to lure Wagner recruits and convicts by using “more favorable terms” in an attempt to limit the growing influence of Prigozhin, who was increasingly seen as a competitor for sections of the armed forces.

“Many in Moscow are really afraid of Prigozhin,” Osechkin said. “They understand that he commands a huge gang – a criminal group organization of mercenaries and assassins – who at any time can organize God knows what in Moscow”.

A Ukrainian intelligence official confirmed to CNN that prisoners recently captured by Ukrainian forces had claimed to be direct employees of the ministry.

“They’re pointing out to us that they’re not Wagner, that they were officially hired by the Department of Defense,” he said. CNN Andriy Usovdefense intelligence representative at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.

Usov said the change in strategy was related to “internal conflicts between Russian military leadersand that the Russian defense hierarchy, the Minister of Defense Shoigu and the new head of the Ukrainian military operation, Valery Gerasimovthey created convict units that they could control directly, unlike the Wagner group.

Yet, he said, the ministry plans to use them in the same way: “like cannon fodder”.

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