Shot 5-year-old girl in head: Prisoners from Wagner confess to killing children in Bakhmut and Soledar

Convicted Russians from the Wagner private military company, who went to war from Russian prisons, confessed to the murder of Ukrainian children in Bakhmut and Soledar. According to one of the killers, 15-year-old unarmed Ukrainians "can hardly be called civilians."

Source: Gulagu.net [a Russian anti-corruption, anti-torture human rights organization and website – ed.]

Details: The human rights defenders posted the testimony of two former commanders of the Wagner private military company units, who were recruited to join Yevgeny Prigozhin's mercenaries from the Russian colonies.

They are Azamat Uldarov, a former convict of Correctional Labour Colony №13 of the Russian Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service from Saratov Oblast (pardoned by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation from 23 August 2022) and Alexei Savichev, a former convict of the Corrective labour colony №1 of the Russian Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service from Voronezh Oblast (pardoned by Putin's decree from 2 September 2022).

The criminals are currently in Russia.

During the week, they testified during video and audio interviews and informed Vladimir Osechkin, the Gulagu.net founder, about the details of the shooting of more than 20 Ukrainian children and teenagers, the blowing up of a pit with more than 50 wounded prisoners and the so-called "500" (those who decided to stop fighting and refused to carry out orders to kill Ukrainians), clearing residential buildings and killing everyone, including children.

In particular, one of the Wagnerites admits that he "shot a 5-year-old girl in the head" when they went to Soledar and Bakhmut: "She screams, she is a small child, you understand. I shot a 5-6-year-old girl in the head."

Uldarov said that he "cleared" the basement with 300-400 civilians; about 40 of them were children. According to him, it was a 9-story building. The occupier adds that "he had no choice" and that he had an order to dispose of everyone.

Quote from Uldarov: "I executed the order with this very hand, I killed the children. You understand, by order. The fact that we… We were given the order to wipe out and kill everyone… We went and killed everyone – women, men, pensioners and children, in particular, the small ones, 5 year-olds."

According to the terrorists, a command to mop up Bakhmut came from Prigozhin. He ordered not to spare anyone – neither old people nor children, just to kill them all. It was even worse in Soledar.

Uldarov also said that he "cleared" the basement of a 9-story building in Bakhmut with 300-400 civilians inside, including 40 children. The occupier adds that "he had no choice" and that he had an order to kill everyone.

The terrorist stated that it happened in March 2023.

Quote from Savichev: "Peaceful residents were going outside. And there was an order: everyone aged 15 and over – shoot all of them at once. 20–24 people were shot, 10 of them were 15-year-old and 17-year-old teenagers."

Asked how many unarmed civilians they killed in February 2023, Savychev replied that 15-year-old Ukrainians "are difficult to call civilians."

Both former commanders of the units of the Wagner private military company units also said that Prigozhin personally gave criminal orders to execute people, approving terrorist methods and brutality.

One of the occupiers also said that once, the Wagnerites got drunk and captured 15 Kadyrovites because they did not want to fight.

Savichev also said that the Wagner fighters were threatened with death if they spoke to journalists.

Note: Data about the occupiers is published by the Russian human rights organization and website Gulagu.net. Thanks to this organisation, military personnel and security forces of the occupiers who "repented" left the territory of Russia. Later, one of the "evacuees", former paratrooper Pavel Filatyev, turned out to be involved in war crimes in Ukraine.

The Gulagu.net video lasts 77 minutes. None of the occupiers said they repented of their crimes in Ukraine. In addition, Uldarov is drunk all the time on the video.

Uldarov also admitted that the Wagnerites do not take prisoners and practice killing Ukrainian soldiers: "Mainly with a knife. We cut the throat. We film it. When Prigozhin said sledgehammer, we took a sledgehammer and killed [a man] with a sledgehammer. This is his method. He is a horrible person."

He also stated that he wanted to return to the front and continue fighting.

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