A former mercenary from the Wagner group who quit the fighting in Ukraine told horror stories about that the Russian-backed soldiers who didn’t wish combat in Ukraine were dragged before recruits and then shot.
“They would swoop down on those who didn’t want to fight, and then shoot the suspects in front of the newcomers,” Andrei Medvedev said to CNN’s Anderson Cooper while discussing the “ruthless” methods.
“They took two prisoners who were not willing to fight, and then shot them before everyone else and then buried them in the trenches dug by the trainees” Medvedev alleged.
He said that soldiers were frequently deployed into battle without guidance and “no strategy at all.”
“We received instructions about the situation of the adversary…There weren’t any specific orders regarding how we should conduct ourselves,” Medvedev explained. “We simply planned the best way to go about itstep-by-step. Who would light the fire, what shifts we’d have…How it would all turn out that was the problem.”
Medvedev was previously a soldier as a soldier in the Russian army prior to joining Wagner as Volunteer in the month of July, 2022. He said to CNN that he was fighting in Ukraine within a mere 10 days after signing his contract.
Breaking: A former commander from notorious mercenary #WagnerGroup , Andrey Medvedev, arrested in #Norway for illegally crossing the border. He's currently seeking asylum and being interrogated by police. pic.twitter.com/BoaL7ekxHm
— Hі-Marvs ???? (@thebfgvez) January 15, 2023
He explained to CNN that it only took six days of his deployment in Ukraine to realize that it was no longer his intention to fight for the military group that he was a part of after witnessing the things they did to their own soldiers, but he was not given the chance to go home until recently.
“I was worried that I might be snatched and executed as a traitor” he stated.
Medvedev is currently living in Oslo, Norway after crossing the border with Russia. He’s now in search of asylum.
Medvedev said to CNN that he was able to avoid arrest “at at least 10 times” on his journey to the United States and was forced to dodge bullets fired by Russian forces.
The Wagner Group, a notorious Russian paramilitary group that has close ties to the Kremlin is believed to be the principal combatant in the Russian conflict in Ukraine.
The US issued an broad listing of sanctions directed at the Wagner group on Thursday, and declared Wagner as a “significant transnational criminal group.” Sanctions are aimed at few of individuals who are “cronies” to Russian Putin’s president Vladimir Putin — and companies that are part of the global network of mercenaries.
