The former commander of a Russian mercenary device has seen a single of his men overwhelmed to dying with a sledgehammer on movie and two more colleagues shot in community executions.
So he knows the awful destiny that awaits him after betrayal and defection.
However Andrey Medvedev is established to blow the whistle on the group’s atrocities and war crimes in Ukraine.
‘I just want to explain to the truth to the earth and get justice so that the individuals who ended up in charge will be punished for what they did,’ mentioned the 26-12 months-old from Siberia.
The Wagner Group of mercenaries, co-founded by 1 of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies and allegedly named soon after Adolf Hitler’s favourite composer, is accused of some of Russia’s most sickening atrocities in Ukraine – and Medvedev is the group’s to start with previous member to publicly expose their terrorism.
Andrey Medvedev (pictured) is identified to blow the whistle on the group’s atrocities and war crimes in Ukraine
The Wagner Team of mercenaries (pictured), co-started by just one of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies and allegedly named after Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer, is accused of some of Russia’s most sickening atrocities in Ukraine – and Medvedev is the group’s initially previous member to publicly expose their terrorism
In an exclusive job interview with The Mail on Sunday, he instructed how Wagner hit squads had killed ‘dozens’ of their own troops for disobeying orders and of seeing horrifying carnage as inadequately geared up recruits had been thrown into the ‘meat grinder’ frontline.
Just 4 of his 30-powerful unit survived their 1st battle – and he states Russian recruits have been simply being utilised as cannon fodder, slaughtered while senior officers hid securely in basements.
Medvedev, who has fled to Norway with the help of Russian human legal rights activists, claimed he narrowly averted execution himself following being thrown in a hole in the ground when refusing to battle.
He was assisted out of the included pit by military mates, then went on the run in Russia for months ahead of escaping in excess of barbed-wire on the border final month as armed guards with puppies hunted him down.
Seeking back, he said he realised in just times of arriving on the frontline that he experienced designed a massive error by falling for Kremlin lies about his nation’s supposedly patriotic mission ‘to liberate Ukraine from fascists’.
He explained some Ukrainians he satisfied spoke angrily to Russian soldiers about the attacks and occupation.
‘Imagine somebody comes and destroys your property and ruins your daily life.’
Medvedev alleged that he determined to depart at the first readily available opportunity.
But then he found the existence of the sinister security squad utilized to have out general public executions of troopers who disobeyed orders and of the murder of prisoners of war.
He explained he witnessed two punishment killings and figured out of ‘dozens’ additional just after joining the paramilitary group final June.
‘You could be executed just for disobeying an order – for refusing to fight,’ he stated.
The hit squad pressured new recruits – among the which have been 40,000 prisoners – to view the killings.
‘A public execution installs dread,’ mentioned Medvedev. ‘Many wives, mother and father, sisters and brothers may well not know their sons did not die on the battlefield but were executed by their have aspect.’
His revelations, endorsed by human-legal rights activists, have horrifying echoes of the commissar squads employed by Stalin to kill Crimson Army deserters in the Next Planet War. ‘Such points shocked me – it is not 1941,’ mentioned Medvedev.
The Wagner execution crew was also utilized to murder Ukrainian prisoners of war – which includes 4 troopers who surrendered to his unit in the vicinity of the fiercely contested town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas area.
‘I just want to explain to the reality to the earth and get justice so that the people who had been in cost will be punished for what they did,’ the 26-yr-outdated from Siberia (remaining) completely told Ian Birrell (ideal)
Just after failing to get hold of useful information and facts from the captives, his platoon commander summoned the feared interior protection squad. ‘You realized that the most effective circumstance state of affairs was severe personal injury – and in the worst circumstance, death.’
His testimony, although controversial supplied his role, is probably important in encouraging make the situation for war crimes towards Putin and Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, a thuggish former jailbird who utilised Kremlin one-way links to become a billionaire.
Vladimir Osechkin, a well known dissident who served Medvedev escape, mentioned there are comparable statements from other Wagner recruits – such as information of about 100 executions – but all the many others had been far too worried to demonstrate their faces publicly.
‘If they give their testimony, the protection companies of the Wagner group will eliminate them,’ explained the human-rights activist. ‘This is very high chance for Andrey.’
Amid the males Medvedev commanded was a previous inmate in his 50s who was filmed remaining beaten to death with a sledgehammer just after fleeing to Ukraine and then returning to Russia.
‘A canine receives a dog’s demise,’ commented Prigozhin.Nevertheless Medvedev insisted he is not worried of Wagner retribution. ‘They are just criminals – I’m undoubtedly not afraid of them.’
He accepts several individuals might think about him as ‘a scoundrel, a felony, a murderer’ after serving with the group, but claimed he is determined to see Putin, Prigozhin and their accomplices facial area justice.
‘It’s just insane,’ he mentioned. ‘This war ought to not have happened.’
We talked over two days in Oslo. At 1 stage he was phoned by the widow of his ideal good friend, whose corpse he experienced retrieved from the battlefield.
She explained to of currently being frequented by Russian security officials searching for him. It was their very first dialogue, leaving him extremely psychological. ‘He was the best friend I had,’ he mentioned, exhibiting me the man’s photo with his spouse on his cellphone.
‘We sat in the exact trench. I carried his system out with my personal fingers.’
Medvedev typifies the type of adult men currently being seduced to provide Putin’s twisted result in. His initially armed service provider came with conscription in 2014 just after 6 a long time in a Siberian orphanage next the death of his mom.
He in no way understood his father and admits it was ‘difficult’ modifying from a family residence to the harsh orphanage natural environment.
He then joined a paratroop regiment and fought alongside Putin’s patsies who experienced infected a ‘separatist’ insurgency in jap Ukraine right after professional-democracy protests ousted a Kremlin ally from the presidency.
His squads killed dozens of their have troops for disobeying orders
He was discharged on medical grounds immediately after becoming hit in the shoulder by shrapnel when a shell landed by a checkpoint he was guarding in Luhansk – while official paperwork claimed he was hurt on border duties to hide his things to do in Ukraine.
He struggled to settle, drifting in between Moscow and Siberia with menial careers and shelling out 4 yrs in jail for petty crimes these kinds of as theft and pleasure-using.
‘I felt like I was hunting for journey – and then I lastly located it,’ he reported.
Last July, he signed a four-thirty day period deal with Wagner. The pay out was desirable at almost $5,000 (£4,150) a month but he also fell for Putin’s propaganda on state television.
Medvedev said: ‘I was brought up as a patriot – taught to like my country and to regard the authorities. I assumed the trigger was just –we were being likely to defend civilians.’
Just 4 of his 30-sturdy device survived their 1st struggle – and he says Russian recruits have been only currently being applied as cannon fodder, slaughtered even though senior officers hid securely in basements (pictured: a mural praising the Russian Wagner team and its mercenaries combating in Ukraine in Belgrade, Serbia, in March 2022)
But then arrived the carnage of the Donbas battlefields, with positions modifying every day and frequent pounding from artillery on both sides.
‘The losses ended up massive,’ he recalled. ‘People were remaining killed and new recruits replaced them.
‘It was like a conveyer belt. 30 would get killed and 30 new types would be brought. Forty individuals killed – they would deliver another 40.’
He claimed their leaders, meanwhile, hid in basements, sending out orders to models lacking adequate meals and weapons.
‘We have been just meat to them. They did not care about us. We went into fight with machine guns against tanks.’
Wagner doesn’t treatment about their fighters. We’re just cannon fodder
Russian prisoners who have enlisted in Putin’s war have told human-legal rights groups they ended up promised five million roubles (£58,700) for their people if killed – but Medvedev explained a lot of had been buried on the place and just declared missing to stay clear of any payout.
‘Wagner doesn’t care about their fighters. We have been just cannon fodder for them. It is tricky for me to discuss about losing my good friends in battle.’
Nonetheless Medvedev reported he admires the braveness of regular troops on both of those sides. ‘The battling is intensive. It was switching each working day.
‘We would go take some positions and then be pushed absent, then retake the placement and get pushed away again.’
Medvedev remaining Wagner final November right after serving his four-month deal and declaring his intent to go away.
Final July, he signed a four-thirty day period deal with Wagner. The pay out was eye-catching at practically $5,000 (£4,150) a thirty day period but he also fell for Putin’s propaganda on point out tv
‘I took off my uniform, threw it on the ground and explained to my commander: go and combat by your self.’
It was then that he was place in the pit. ‘I was meant to sit and wait around for the Wagner security service. But the boys aided me to get out of there and escape.’
Later he travelled to St Petersburg and filmed himself handing in his armed forces identification tag at the Wagner workplace.
‘This was the stupidest point I’ve performed,’ he admitted with a rueful grin. ‘I’m scared of the dentist but I’m not worried to go into the dragon’s cave.’
At very first, he tried using to flee to Finland right before travelling to Russia’s considerably north and generating the perilous passage across the Norwegian border in the early hrs of January 13.
‘When I crossed the border, I screamed with contentment,’ he mentioned. ‘I’m grateful to the [Russian] ministry of defence and Wagner for the capabilities that I acquired which helped me to escape Russia.’
The shadowy Wagner Team initial emerged in 2014 alongside particular forces stirring up the meant separatist insurgencies in japanese Ukraine.
Now it has grown so significant that it is considered to comprise about 10 per cent of Russian troops in Ukraine.
It was started by Prigozhin, who put in 10 many years in prison for strangling a teen right up until she fell unconscious, then stealing her boots and gold earrings.
He later ran a St Petersburg restaurant utilised by Putin – main to his nickname as ‘Putin’s chef.’
Ahead of final year’s complete-scale invasion of Ukraine, it was a much smaller sized drive reliant on military services veterans for mercenary operations in Middle Jap and African issues spots.
Right until five months in the past, Prigozhin denied any ties to Wagner –but lately there have even been videos of him recruiting within prisons, giving inmates freedom if they survived 6 months on the frontline.
Medvedev mentioned he saw Prigozhin – whose increase has been known as a parable of Putin’s Russia – through his coaching.
‘He’s a unwell particular person. The way he spoke, the issues he reported, his conceitedness, the language he employed, would make me assume he is a psychopath.’
Prigozhin has retaliated by professing Medvedev is a Norwegian citizen connected to a non-existent Nordic mercenary device and accusing him of ‘mistreatment of prisoners’.
Although there have been common experiences of Wagner troopers committing mass murder, rape and looting, Medvedev claimed he would not share any these insights in community although he was giving information and facts to Kripos, the Norwegian law enforcement device accountable for probing war crimes.
Numerous standard Russian adult males like me fell for Putin’s propaganda
He is searching for asylum after being freed from detention.
Acquiring previously claimed to have movie footage of an execution, he mentioned he has handed ‘some digital material’ to the investigators.
Oslo police say he has been put beneath ‘visible and non-visible’ protection for his defense.
Previous Friday, Ukraine’s prosecutor-typical stated all Wagner troops faced investigation for war crimes, which includes ‘those who fled abroad’.
He claimed they had questioned two former fighters now in Europe and were probing a different ‘located in Norway’.
Medvedev promises a lot of ‘normal’ Russian adult men such as himself who fell for Putin’s propaganda turned trapped in the hell of the invasion frontline – but now he was standing up against their ‘criminal’ leaders.
‘I want to say it yet again: this war need to not have happened,’ he mentioned.
‘The Ukrainians are preventing for their integrity, for their country. I went there, saw it and now I know the reality.’
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