‘Wagner’ Deserter: They Shoot Those Unwilling To Fight In Front Of Newcomers’

The former mercenary called Prigozhin a “devil” and spoke about the routines in the PMC.

“Wagner” fighters were often sent into battle with little direction, and the company’s treatment of reluctant recruits was ruthless, former Wagner mercenary, commander of division Andrei Medvedev told CNN from Norway’s capital Oslo, where he is seeking asylum after crossing that country’s arctic border from Russia.

“They would round up those who did not want to fight and shoot them in front of newcomers,” he alleges. “They brought two prisoners who refused to go fight and they shot them in front of everyone and buried them right in the trenches that were dug by the trainees.”

The 26-year-old defector previously served in the Russian army and joined Wagner as a volunteer. Served near Bakhmut. Medvedev said he reported directly to the group’s founders, Dmitry Utkin and Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.

He refers to Prigozhin as “the devil.” If he was a Russian hero, he would have taken a gun and run with the soldiers,” Medvedev said.

Medvedev told CNN that he did not want to comment on what he’d done himself while fighting in Ukraine.

Wagner lacked a tactical strategy, with troops coming up with plans on the fly, Medvedev said.

“There were no real tactics at all. We just got orders about the position of the adversary…There were no definite orders about how we should behave. We just planned how we would go about it, step by step. Who would open fire, what kind of shifts we would have…How it would turn out that was our problem,” he said.

The ex-Wagnerite confessed witnessing troops being turned into cannon fodder.

He started off with 10 men under his command, a number that grew once prisoners were allowed to join, he said.

“There were more dead bodies, and more, and more, people coming in. In the end I had a lot of people under my command,” he said. “I couldn’t count how many. They were in constant circulation. Dead bodies, more prisoners, more dead bodies, more prisoners.”

He added that he wants to now share his story in order to help bring Prigozhin and Russian President Vladimir Putin to justice.

“Sooner or later the propaganda in Russia will stop working, the people will rise up and all our leaders …will be up for grabs and a new leader will emerge.”

When asked if he fears the fate meted on another Wagner defector, Yevgeny Nuzhin, who was murdered on camera with a sledgehammer, Medvedev said Nuzhin’s death emboldened him to leave.

Medvedev said he managed to cross Russia’s border, evade arrest “at least ten times” and dodge bullets from Russian forces. He crossed into Norway over an icy lake using white camouflage to blend in, he said.

Prigozhin has previously confirmed that Medvedev had served in his company, and said that he “should have been prosecuted for attempting to mistreat prisoners.”