Prisoners of war on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine have told UN human rights investigators that they have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment while held captive. Russian prisoners in St. Petersburg are being offered freedom and money if they join Vladimir Putin 's war against Ukraine, according to a local independent news outlet. Nobody could ever believe such a thing could exist, Sergei said of Wagner tactics. His family in Tanzania told CNN they heard nothing of his fate until they were contacted by officials to say he had died. By luck, the bullets missed him, he said. But for some families, Romanovas offer of help will come too late. Anyone can read what you share.

The infamous Wagner Group has recruited prisoners to fight on the front lines. One soldier was wounded and screamed, Help me! A senior US military official told reporters Monday that prisoners and other recently mobilized troops were being used by Russia to "take the brunt" of Ukrainian fire on the front lines to clear a path for "better-trained forces" amid heavy fighting in Ukraine's east. 2. The soldiers in Sergeis squad were recruited from penal colonies by the private military company known as Wagner, whose forces have mostly been deployed in the Bakhmut area. This video shows Russian soldiers being interrogated. We have launched English Twitter! "I am being taken to be shot. A soldier points a rifle and fires two shots at the body, pauses, then fires another. His wife was told by a Russian separatist official that he died of shrapnel injuries. The body stops moving. A poster showing a member of the Russian military near the headquarters of the Wagner private military company in St. Petersburg, Russia. Graves of Wagner group fighters, most of them prison conscripts, in a cemetery near the village of Bakinskaya, Russia, this month. Their accounts could not be independently corroborated but conformed with assessments of the fighting around the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut by Western governments and military analysts. On Thursday, Prigozhin announced that Wagner had stopped recruiting convicts to fight in Ukraine, saying: "We have completely discontinued the recruitment of prisoners into Wagner PMC. I want to defend the Motherland, he said in a brief interview on Friday. Wagner released a ghoulish video of a memorial ceremony in Tarimo's honor at a graveyard in Molkino, western Russia, saying he died in October near Bakhmut. His cousin Rehema Makrene Kigoga told CNN: "Since his childhood, Nemes was a very obedient boy. They were not forced to dig Russias defensive fortifications, nor was there an effort to exchange them for Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine. First, the prisoners were left largely to their own devices in their Ukrainian jails. WebMarch 5, 2022. The sequential assaults on Ukrainian lines by small units of former Russian prisoners have become a signature Russian tactic in the effort to capture Bakhmut. Women POWs told interviewers that they were not subjected to physical violence but described being psychologically tormented by the screams of male POWs being tortured in nearby cells. He told CNN in the past few days he had been sent back to the frontline, his injuries unhealed. The fighting would turn out to be far more dangerous than he had imagined. This soldier was wounded severely in the leg in October, after 25 days on the front, but described how he felt no fear.

Half an hour later, he and the others were ordered to report to the prisons main square where two heavily guarded men were waiting. The arrangement, he said, was not offered to rapists and drug addicts, but murderers, burglars and other prisoners were welcome. I wish Prigozhin never came.. According to Romanovas estimate, about 11,000 Russian prisoners have already signed up to go to Ukraine, a number that she said was growing rapidly. Discovery Company. The Russians behavior befuddled the convicts from the start, with no one, including apparently their new jailers, having much of an idea what to do with them. Natalia Yermak contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Alina Lobzina from London. We are prisoners, even if former prisoners, he said. "You've worked through your contract. It is either private military contractors and prisoners [fighting in Ukraine] or your children decide for yourself, he said on social media. Do the sources know the information? Its effective. Those who get there and say I think Im in the wrong place will be marked as deserters and shot..

Days later, he was at a training camp near the occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk.

You brought me here, under the muzzles of automatic guns!. Can we corroborate the information? The Guardian was unable to verify all the details of the inmates accounts, but their stories corroborated earlier reports by the Russian investigative outlets Important Stories and Meduza. Russia no longer has a professional army in the traditional sense.

Like everything in Russia, it was completely absurd, Mr. Osadchyi added. His dash toward Ukrainian lines in a group of five soldiers ended with three dead and two captured. Three of them have head wounds and blood is pooled around the body of a fourth, who has a jacket pulled over his head and seems to be rasping.

Mr. Osadchyi claimed the guards shouted Greet the Russian world! as they beat him. WebA Russian activist who has been documenting Russias war losses in Ukraine was forced to flee the country after the authorities opened two criminal cases against him, local news Receive daily updates directly in your inbox -, Ukrainian and Russian POWs tortured and ill-treated: OHCHR, UNs human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, Bucha killings raise serious questions about possible war crimes: Bachelet, Ukraine: Support for war crimes investigations of paramount importance, UNs Bachelet condemns horrors faced by Ukraines civilians, General Assembly adopts resolution on Russian reparations for Ukraine.

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He never even had a dream of becoming a soldier. Some rejected them out of patriotism; others feared retribution from the government in Kyiv. A person narrating to the camera then turns to film a Russian infantry fighting vehicle with a V marking similar to that seen on Russian military hardware operated by many units in Ukraine. The exact time and date of the video, which appeared on a pro-Russian Telegram channel, is unclear. An additional 150,000 are in training camps, officials said, meaning there is the potential for half a million soldiers to join the offensive. What we consider before using anonymous sources. Last week a leaked video featuring a man closely resembling Prigozhin went viral on Russian social media. When Russian troops left Kherson, they took with them 2,500 Ukrainian convicts from local prisons. But Wagner recruiters came and went, without accepting even the few Ukrainians who had volunteered.

Hundreds of Russian soldiers are reportedly refusing to fight and trying to quit. For some, it was the start of a bewildering, five-country journey highlighting the wars absurdity. 18. When Russian troops left Kherson, they took with them 2,500 Ukrainian convicts from local prisons. They brought us to a basement, divided us into five-person groups and, though we hadnt been trained, told us to run ahead, as far as we could go, he said of his commanders.

Eight soldiers were killed, one escaped back to Russian lines and Sergei was captured by Ukrainians. A 26-year-old Siberian orphan, Mr. Matyukhin said he was serving his third sentence in the remote Krasnoyarsk region when Mr. Prigozhin arrived by helicopter in November, offering eventual freedom in return for enlistment. Can we corroborate the information? No more than 5 people know counteroffensive plan of Armed Forces of Ukraine Ukraine's Defence Council Secretary, Ukraine's Defence Ministry explains what they meant by saying situation in Bakhmut was "under control", Putin admits that Armed Forces of Ukraine cause losses of Russian army, Macron urges China to convince Russia to stop the war in Ukraine during state visit to Beijing, Three Russian MiG jets leave Belarus for Russia, Journalists find house of Russian-linked church's Metropolitan measuring 580 square metres, Ukraine orders more Rosomak armoured vehicles from Poland than previously announced, Russia has critical missile shortage Ukraine's Defence Council Secretary, Russia hit residential building in centre of Orikhiv and attacked Huliaipole with missiles, Xi tells Macron about his readiness to "work hard" for peace in Ukraine, UOC-MP priest who molested his own daughters detained Prosecutor's Office, Ukrainian war drama film Butterfly Vision released, China's leader to talk to Zelenskyy "when conditions are right" von der Leyen, Russia has not removed killing of Zelenskyy from agenda Ukraine's Defence CouncilSecretary, Xi Jinping did not change his mind on Russian war following talks with Macron. Anyone can read what you share. When I saw that video, I thought Prigozhin must be on a very busy schedule because it was exactly what he told us as well, Ivan said. After spending just three weeks at home, Mr. Yastrebov said he was already getting ready to return to the front, despite the extraordinary casualty rates suffered by his prisons unit, according to Russia Behind Bars. From left, Anatoly Korin, Ruslan Osadchiy and Aidana Fedosik in Tbilisi, Georgia, last month. He said he would now join up if Prigozhin came calling again. CNN spoke to several prisoners who worked for a unit known by its number "08807" -- who all say they were employed directly by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Tanzanian student Nemes Tarimo was killed in Ukraine in October. I cant even begin to imagine what disciplinary problems prisoners will bring., On Tuesday, the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, himself behind bars, tweeted that Russian prisons were full of people with big problems with discipline and even bigger problems with alcohol and substances. He said his unit had only 15 survivors and that the 08807 was now called 40321, or "Storm unit." 2023 Cable News Network.

Private Sergei said he had initially been pleased with the offer of a pardon in exchange for service in Wagner. Some of the Ukrainians held in the immigration prison eventually received help from Unmode, a collective of advocates for prisoner rights in former Soviet states. He has since escaped to Norway and applied for political asylum. She also said that accountability is key to deterring and preventing further violations, adding that the parties to the conflict have clear legal obligations to investigate and prosecute all allegations of violations of international humanitarian law in relation to the treatment of prisoners of war within their control. A US official said on Monday that Wagner, which has been accused of war crimes and human rights abuses in Ukraine and other conflicts, was trying to recruit more than 1,500 convicted felons. Thus, the issue of regulating their status in the future arises.

Prigozhin, whose photo now appears on Wagner posters, commented on the footage by criticising those who opposed the recruitment of prisoners. 20002023, Ukrainska Pravda. He was captured on his first human wave assault. Sevalnev's case and several prisoners that CNN spoke to appear to suggest a disturbing new strategy used by Russia's Ministry of Defense. He didnt go for the money, he was too proud for that, said Anastasia, about a relative who enlisted with Wagner as a prisoner. No Russian official has publicly acknowledged the transfer of Kherson prisoners into Russia, a possible violation of international law, which prohibits the forced removal of people from an occupied zone.

There is almost no life left," Zelenskyy said of the situation in Soledar.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine won strong backing, officially became the military alliances 31st member, in the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut. The campaign to recruit convicts began in early July, when Mr. Prigozhin started appearing in prisons around his native St. Petersburg with a radical proposal for the inmates: paying their debt to society by joining his private army in Ukraine. Since the start of the summer, reports have emerged that Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin and the reported head of the Wagner group an allegation he has repeatedly denied was recruiting soldiers from within Russias extensive penitentiary system in an attempt to compensate for the countrys acute personnel shortages on the battlefield in Ukraine. Mr. Prigozhin at a funeral for a Wagner fighter outside St. Petersburg in December. To document the recruitment drive, The Times interviewed rights activists, lawyers, legal workers, relatives of recruited inmates, deserters and prisoners who decided to remain behind bars but maintain contact with companions on the front lines. Another captured Russian, Eduard, 22, enlisted to get four years cut from a sentence for car theft. But why do you need it? Ukrainian officials acknowledged that prisoners some of whom had been convicted of murder, kidnapping and rape were largely forgotten in the chaos of the Ukrainian retreat. Olga Maltseva/Agence France-Presse Getty Images. However, Sevalnev and several prisoners CNN has spoken to seem to indicate a disturbing new strategy. The soldiers were sitting ducks, sent forth by Russian commanders to act essentially as human cannon fodder in an assault. In several cases, Russian POWs said they were stabbed or given electric shocks with the TAPik phone by Ukrainian law enforcement officers or military personnel guarding them. Russian prisoners of war find themselves held with ordinary prisoners. Follow us! Background:Leaving Kherson in November, Russians released prisoners, who had been sentenced in a remand centre in the city of Kherson. Mr. Matyukhin described a climate of fear instilled by Wagner to keep convicts fighting. WebAug. It's not good. He also offered bravery bonuses, $80,000 death payouts and, should they survive the six-month contract, freedom in the form of a presidential pardon. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. And they killed him. In his nightly address Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy painted a grim picture of the situation in the town. I am living my seventh decade. Sergei, sat, shoulders slumped, on the sofa in the wardens office of the Ukrainian detention center. It didnt have any logic, said Mr. Osadchyi, 44, who served 12 years for homicide. In three days at the front south of Bakhmut, Private Sergei first served as a stretcher bearer, carrying out mangled, bloody former prisoners who had been killed or wounded in an omen of what awaited him when ordered to join an assault. But I wanted to double check the date of this of this video, because you should understand one thing now (or) you will not understand it. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source. Web15 November 2022 Human Rights. But a pardon for eight years is valuable.. WebMoscow The first group of Russian prisoners offered an amnesty in return for fighting in Ukraine has been released, the head of a mercenary group that employed them said in a Some held documents suggesting they were ultimately deployed to an element of the Luhansk separatist army, which has been suborned into the Russian defense ministry.

"Don't drink a lot, don't use drugs, don't rape women, do not get up to no good," Prigozhin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, could be heard telling them. Help me, please! the private said, though no help arrived.

One captured former inmate described many of the recruited prisoners as "completely insane. The truth is, said Ivan, the inmate from Tambov, we, thieves and killers, are now fighting Russias war., Alleged Wagner Group fighters accused of murdering civilians in Ukraine, Wagner-linked Putin ally: Dying west thinks Russians are third world scum, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Which U.S. cities have the lowest and highest property taxes? "No one gives themselves up," he said, adding recruits should have grenades on them in case of capture.

Emergency and search-and-rescue teams have deployed to assess and prioritize urgent needs and to provide life-saving assistance following the devastating earthquake near the Trkiye-Syria border. Im sorry, but you dont understand how it feels after seeing pictures on Bucha. POWs described being beaten, including with batons and wooden hammers, being kicked, and given electric shocks with tasers and a military phone known as TAPik. I started to think things over in a big way, he said. 9:18 AM EDT, Fri April 8, 2022. Five of them were seriously wounded, Yet the operation remains largely cloaked in secrecy and propaganda. It follows the emergence of a video from the front

Some of them are returning to civilian life with military training and, in many cases, battlefield traumas. The prisoners are identified only by first name and rank for security reasons, because of the possibility of retribution once they are returned. #Ukraine/#Russia: All prisoners of war must be treated humanely at all times - from capture until release & repatriation. In some cases, they said they were punched and kicked in the face and body after surrendering and when they were interrogated. "People walk around [the hospital] with bullet wounds, with shrapnel stuck in their legs.". One recent day, at a base in a pine forest, new Azov recruits marched, stood at attention and Mr. Fedorenko said he got off with a bloodied face.

But he warned that few would come back.. So that we can be reunited again, Irina said. Some were beaten unconscious, he said. Sevalnev's wife declined to be interviewed for this report, but his audio messages and images of him from the war were supplied to CNN by Gulagu.net. He was convicted of killing an unarmed civilian. We were received with shouts, beatings, humiliations, said Mr. Fedorenko, 47, who had been serving time in Kherson for theft, describing his introduction to a Russian-controlled prison. Ukraine gave the mission access to Russian POWs where they were being held. But what use is he to us dead? Their hands will be untied there, he added.

At first, Kherson prisoners thought they would be pressed into the convict battalions that Russias Wagner mercenary group had formed.

The inmates of penal colony No 8, in the Tambov region 300 miles south of Moscow, rushed to their cell windows when they heard the sound of a helicopter approaching on a late afternoon in July.