The murder of three Ukrainian soldiers by a Russian mercenary from the Wagner Group

@DefAviation ES 1·11·2023 · 21:42 0

The long list of war crimes perpetrated by the Russian invaders in the Ukraine has increased today with the publication of a harsh video from the Wagner Group.

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The video was published on the Telegram channel "Orkestr Vagnera | Wagner", belonging to that group of mercenaries. In the images, recorded in Soledar, in the Donetsk region (near Bakhmut), you can see a Russian mercenary surprising three Ukrainian soldiers in a trench. Two of the soldiers look wounded and bewildered, shouting to the mercenary that they are one of his own, as Wagner members are wearing Ukrainian MM14 uniforms, something prohibited by the Geneva Convention and for which they could be executed as spies if caught (as happened to Otto Skorzeny's German commandos in the 1944 Battle of the Bulge who were captured disguised as American military policemen).

You can see the video here. WARNING: the images may hurt your sensibilities. They are extremely harsh and I don't like to publish videos like this, but I believe that these facts have to be known so that more and more people find out about criminal acts what the Russians are doing:

Here are some screenshots from the video:

1. The moment when the three Ukrainian soldiers are surprised by the Russian mercenary. They occupy a trench protected by several boxes. The soldier in the middle remains motionless, possibly wounded.

2. One of the Ukrainian soldiers yells at the mercenary that they are one of his own. This demonstrates the bewilderment of the Ukrainians when the Russian mercenary tries to take their weapons, and indicates that it could be one of the Wagner Group mercenaries photographed in the area wearing Ukrainian uniforms and without any color band to identify which side they are on.

3. The Ukrainian soldier on the left sets aside his weapon , a rifle equipped with a grenade launcher. In the image you can see that the man has a wound on his forehead that is bleeding from the right side of his face.

4. After laying down his weapon, the Ukrainian soldier on the left raises both hands with open palms towards the mercenary, as if trying to calm him down to talk to him (the Russian's shouts indicate a great state of excitement).

5. The Russian mercenary shoots the unarmed Ukrainian soldier point-blank. It's full blown murder. Significantly, the firing begins at the man who had put his gun aside, and not at the soldier on the right, who still had his.

6. The mercenary also fired at the Ukrainian soldier on the right, directing his shots at his head.

7. The mercenary fired several bursts at the three soldiers, also hitting the one who remained motionless in the center of the trench.

This infamous Russian group of mercenaries, founded by neo-Nazi Dmitri Utkin, was already the subject of complaints for its atrocities in the Syrian War, including smashing an unarmed prisoner with a power hammer, in a scene that the group itself spread and which it boasts about in its propaganda, which usually includes some jackhammer. Sadism is the particular brand of this group.

In November, the European Parliament asked to add the group to the EU list of individuals, groups and entities involved in terrorist acts, noting that members of the Wager Group "have repeatedly targeted civilians in several other locations, including during the Second Chechen War, the 2008 Russia-Georgia war and the Syrian Civil War, as well as in Libya, the Central African Republic and Mali", and denouncing that said group "receives significant political, economic and logistical support from the Russian state, in particular the Russian Ministry of Defence."

The Wagner Group's response to the European Parliament was to send a bloody hammer, in a clear reference to that act of sadism against a Syrian prisoner. The group itself boasted of sending the hammer, in a gesture typical of a mafia organization.