‘Wagner ex-convict mercenaries’ confess to killing women, pensioners and children as young as FIVE

Two men claiming to be Russian unit commanders of the Wagner mercenary group have confessed to killing children, women and pensioners in Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine.

In the chilling videos, the pair talk about the alleged executions of more than 20 Ukrainian children and teenagers, as well as the blowing up of a pit into which more than 50 injured Ukrainian prisoners had been dumped.

Other dead were those who refused to fight in Putin’s war, they said.

The pair – who say they were conscript convicts who were pardoned by Putin in August after working for Wagner for six months – admitted that while acting on orders, they “killed everyone – women, men, pensioners and children.”

They claimed that the head of Wagner – Yevgeny Prigozhin, nicknamed Putin’s “chief” – personally ordered executions and murders.

One of the two commanders, named Azamat Uldarov, said that he had killed a five-year-old child on orders.

He revealed that he shot a girl as young as five in the head in confession to an exiled Russian human rights group called gulagu.net

He said, ‘She was screaming, she was a little kid, you know?

“She was five or six years old, and I fired, you see, the control shot, because I wasn’t supposed to release anyone. This was the order.’

He explained, “We’re killing each other, and I have no idea what for. I just can’t understand. I want to cry. But I’m not going to cry, I’m so tired, I’m already crying for the second day…

“If I tell you the whole truth about what’s going on there, your hair will stand on end.”

He spoke of grotesque atrocities in Soledar and Bakhmut. The battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut has seen the bloodiest fighting of the war so far, with Wagner heavily involved in Russia’s attempts to take control.

The nearby village of Soledar was taken earlier this year, with Wagner’s leader drawing the wrath of the Kremlin by claiming his troops alone were responsible.

“We were ordered to clean up and destroy everyone,” Uldarov said.

‘We arrived with the last batch of Wagnerites, 150 people. And we were ordered to destroy alone along the way and to be on the defensive by all means. We went and killed everyone.

“There were women, men, grandfathers, pensioners and children,” he said.

The other commander Alexei Savichev said that after a visit by journalists, he and another comrade were ordered to massacre civilians.

He knew of at least 70 executions of Russians by Russians, he said.

They were killed for refusing to fight or refusing to kill civilians, he claimed.

Citizens left. And there was an order: everyone who is 15 [years old] and most importantly – to be shot all at once without saying a word,” he claimed.

“There were 20 to 24 people shot, of which 10 people were 15-year-olds and 17-year-old teenagers. How many were shot? Maybe 24 people, maybe 20.’

He said they were forced to ‘follow orders’ for fear they could otherwise be thrown in jail. If they told journalists about the atrocities, a commander said they would be “immediately drunk,” he said.

The two men who confessed would now be in Russia, which – if true – puts them at risk of jail or worse.

In November, Russian prisoner-turned-Wagner fighter Yevgeny Nuzhin — who switched sides in the war in Ukraine — was executed with a sledgehammer in a harrowing video that circulated online. Prigozhin described Nuzhin as a traitor, with Putin’s closest ally saying a “dog gets a dog’s death” in response to the clip.

A second Wagner deserter – Dmitry Yakushchenko – was killed in the same way in February this year. His death was featured in a second equally gruesome video.

The head of the human rights group Gulagu, Vladimir Osechkin, said: “Azamat and Alexei are in Russia, 100 percent they are not under any influence of the SBU [Ukrainian intelligence] or CIA, or someone else.’

He believes their ‘horrifying details of the execution of more than 20 Ukrainian children and teenagers’ [and] the explosion of a pit with more than 50 wounded prisoners is compelling evidence of war crimes.

As well as killing war resisters and ‘cleaning’ residential buildings – ‘killing everyone, including children’.

Savichev said that in January in Bakhmut “near the barracks, past the jam factory” he was ordered to throw grenades into a hole full of dozens of wounded and dead, then burn the bodies with petrol and diesel.

The dead were Russian and Ukrainian.

“I carried out the order and left,” he said.

“Both ex-commanders of the Wagner PMC units said that Yevgeny Prigozhin personally gave criminal orders for the executions and killings, and also approved terrorist methods and atrocities.”

Commenting on an infamous video of a soldier being beheaded, he said it was “nonsense” compared to what was happening in the background.

Asked how many shots he saw, Savichev replied, “I’ll tell the truth.” I don’t want to cheat you and myself. About 70 people were shot.’

Those executed included prisoners from a correctional colony in Russia’s Voronezh region, he said.

Uldatov spoke about his motives for revealing the details.

“I want to punish everyone. I want Russia and other states to know the truth. I don’t want war, I don’t want bloodshed,” he said.

‘Do you see me with a cigarette in my hand? I carried out the order with this hand, killed the children. To understand? On order.

“What we did when we went to Soledar and Bakhmut, that was the scene. We were ordered to clean up and kill everyone.’

He was asked, “Who gave such orders?”

He replied, ‘Starting from the top. I had [commander] Korshun. [inaudible].

“This is the first commander. Then Korshun. Above them is [Yevgeny] Prigozhin, who told us not to release anyone, to kill everyone.’

Uldarov – who was in tears – said he took part in a mass killing of civilians in Bakhmut on March 18.

“There were about 300, including about 40 children,” he said. “We were ordered to kill everyone. It was in the basement of a nine-story apartment building.

The order came from Prigozhin,’ he said. “No prisoners.”

“We’re people of the same religion…I don’t understand why we killed each other.”

Empty coffins were returned to Russia because some of the victims were left with nothing, he said.

Prigozhin labeled Osechkin a “maniac and degenerate.”

“About shooting children – of course no one ever shoots civilians or children, no one needs that,” he said in response to the admissions.

“We went there to save them from the regime they were under.” He added on video, “We never touched [children] and don’t touch. This is a blatant lie.’

One of those allegedly killed by the ex-commanders is still alive, he said.

The confessions of the two Wagner mercenaries is certainly not the first time that gruesome Russian war crimes have been reported.

Within the first month of the war, reports came from Ukraine of Russian soldiers executing civilians, with Kiev accusing Moscow of genocide.

National headlines carried news of several civilian casualties in the Kiev suburb of Bucha, revealed after Russian troops withdrew from the area in March 2022.

Hundreds of corpses were found in the city, including some with their hands tied behind their backs and apparently executed.