Russian army deserter who fired at police in Rostov Oblast turned out to be Wagner mercenary
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Read also: Suspected deserter opens fire on police officers with machine gun in Rostov Oblast, media report
"Pavel Nikolin was serving a sentence for theft and robbery in the Ufa Penal Colony-4,” one report reads.
“From there he was recruited to the Wagner PMC. On Nov. 24, Nikolin changed his mind about fighting and fled. Yesterday, he was spotted near a factory in Novoshakhtinsk. Nikolin attacked the police and opened fire with a Kalashnikov machine gun. The man wounded one employee in the pelvis and then fled.”
Read also: Wagner recruits mercenaries from prisoners in occupied areas of Ukraine
Subsequently, the security forces found Nikolin on the premises of an abandoned pig farm.
Allegedly, he resisted law enforcers during detention.
The Wagner mercenary company is controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an associate of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Read also: Russia’s Wagner Group recruits convicts in Central African Republic
In mid-September videos appeared on social media showing Prigozhin recruiting prisoners in Russian jails for his mercenary company, offering them money and freedom after six months if they signed up to fight in Ukraine.
There were reports that Wagner was recruiting convicts from Russian prisons as early as July, as fighting intensified in Ukraine’s Donbas, in which Wagner fighters play a prominent role.
The company is rumored to be experiencing staff shortages as heavy fighting in the Donbas in the area of the key town of Bakhmut continues into the winter months.
Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
