Russia reveals execution of convict using sledgehammer as he had surrendered to Armed Forces of Ukraine

Russian Telegram channels posted a video of the execution of Evgeniy Nuzhin, a former prisoner of the Ryazan Penal Colony-3 and a member of the Wagner Private Military Company, who surrendered to the Armed Forces of Ukraine after being sent to the war against Ukraine; the man's head was smashed with a sledgehammer.

Source: Russian Telegram channels Baza and Medusa

Details: The video is edited from two parts: one part shows a fragment of Nuzhin's interview to a Ukrainian journalist after he had been taken to captivity [in that interview, Nuzhin reveals how Russians recruit convicts to the war against Ukraine, and that he deliberately joined the Wagner Private Military Company to get into Ukrainian captivity and fight against Russia – ed.]

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Another part of the video shows a man in Ukrainian military uniform, with his head taped to a makeshift anvil made of bricks and concrete. He says that he is "Evgeniy Nuzhin, born in 1967, went to the front to join Ukraine and fight against the Russians" and that "on 4 September, he carried out his plan to join Ukraine."

He also stated that on 11 November, he allegedly "was on the streets of Kyiv, where he was hit on the head, lost consciousness and ended up in this basement", where they told him that he would be "judged".

After that, a man in military uniform hits Nuzhin on the head using a large sledgehammer. The "convict" falls down from the anvil, and the "executioner" hits him in the face again. At this point, the video ends.

Russian social media also published an alleged comment by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Chief of the Wagner PMC, in which he admitted that the massacre was committed by his mercenaries.

Quote from Prigozhin: "I prefer to watch this story in the theatre. As for the executed, in this video it is clear that he did not find happiness in Ukraine, but met with evil but fair people. I think this film should be called "Death to a Dog". Excellent director’s work, you can watch it in one go. I hope no animals were hurt during the filming."

Why this is important: Medusa noted that the statements that Nuzhin was captured in Kyiv sound implausible, as prisoners of war [POWs] cannot walk around freely.

Russian social communities also write that Nuzhin was allegedly returned to Russia during one of the rounds of POW exchange.

Perhaps, this video is intended to discourage the Russian conscripts from surrendering to Ukraine.

The atrocities of the Wagnerites have been known for a while. And Prigozhin's mercenaries have been using a sledgehammer for murders since the war in Syria. The evidence of how in 2017 in Syria, the Wagnerites beat a man to death, quartered the body and burned it may be found in the network.

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