Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov published a video interview with a captured Wagner PMC fighter, a prisoner of the Ryazan IK-3, who was recruited for the war in Ukraine.
The man in the video says his name is Yevgeny Nuzhin. According to him, 23 years ago he was convicted of murder and sentenced to 24 years in prison. He was later given an additional four years for an escape attempt. The source of Important Stories identified Nuzhin and confirmed his words.
The video interview has been edited, fragments have been cut out of it.
Nuzhin told the journalist that in July 2022, Yevgeny Prigozhin (co-owner of Wagner PMC) flew to the colony where he was imprisoned by helicopter. He invited the prisoners to join the PMC, promised a pardon, a salary of about 100 thousand, in the event of death – 5 million rubles to his relatives, and said that the homeland was in danger, says the prisoner. According to him, 92 prisoners agreed, including himself.
From the colony, the prisoners were sent to the Lugansk region, Nuzhin said. There they were trained to handle weapons and taken to the training ground. They were also given various papers to sign, but the prisoner does not remember what they contained.
Nuzhin said that for non-compliance with the orders of the military, PMCs are “reset” (shooted). He says that even those who argued with the instructor during the training were “zeroed out”.
When the training ended, on September 2 they were transferred "to some private sector." There they gathered a group of 17 people who were supposed to take out the wounded and the dead. “On the second day, there were no longer 17, maybe 8-10 people remained. In the afternoon shelling, we sat out. And at night they crawled out into the forest belt, looking for the dead, their own, ”explained the prisoner,
September 4 Nuzhin surrendered.
“I decided to give up a long time ago. When I was in the camp, it all started, I watched TV. I had a phone, and I looked on YouTube. There is a Russian legion here, they gave a call to come. And then, when this mess began, damn it, I decided for myself that when I arrived, I would give up anyway. And I'll try to get there. I would like to fight on the side of the Ukrainians. That's why I surrendered. Because not Ukraine attacked Russia, but Putin attacked Ukraine. Well, I can’t fight here, I have relatives here: my uncle lives here in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, my sister lives in Lvov, ”Nuzhin told the journalist.
