The Ukrainian authorities commented on the execution with a sledgehammer of a former Russian prisoner and ex-fighter of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Nuzhin. Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, claims that Ukraine sent Nuzhin to Russia as a result of an exchange of prisoners of war – the man himself agreed to this.
According to Podolyak, Nuzhin signed a document of voluntary consent to the exchange.
“We have a very simple approach. A captured soldier can sign a voluntary waiver of the exchange procedure. And this will be recorded with us, ”Podolyak told the Dozhd TV channel.
At the same time, an adviser to the head of the office of Volodymyr Zelensky denies the information that Nuzhin was exchanged for 20 Ukrainian prisoners of war – the exchange took place according to the “package for package” rule. According to Podolyak, Ukraine received 47 of its military, Russia – "a certain number" of its own.
The founder of PMC Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, uses Nuzhin for propaganda purposes, Podolyak believes. Prigozhin, according to him, staged a demonstrative execution of his ex-fighter.
The video with the execution of Nuzhin was published in the Gray Zone Telegram channel, which is associated with PMCs. In early September, Nuzhin surrendered to Ukrainian captivity, after which he gave an interview to Ukrainian journalist Yuri Butusov, where he spoke about the terrible conditions in the Russian army and that he wants to go over to the side of Ukraine. The description of the execution video states that the man "suddenly disappeared from investigation in Kyiv." Nuzhin himself in the video says that on November 11, while in Kyiv, he received a blow to the head, lost consciousness and woke up in the basement, where he found out that he "would be judged."
The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel wrote that Nuzhin returned to Russia during the last exchange of prisoners of war. The human rights project Gulagu.net published the same information: according to the information of the head of the project, Vladimir Osechkin, Nuzhin was exchanged for 20 Ukrainian military men, this was lobbied personally by Prigozhin.
Prigozhin himself commented on the video with the execution: "To a dog – a dog's death."