Russian Soldiers Executed for Showing Fear, Captured Recruit Says

A captured Russian soldier has said he witnessed the execution of his fellow troops after they displayed fear on the battlefield in Ukraine.

After his interview began to circulate on Ukrainian Telegram channels, independent Russian news outlet Nestka identified the individual as Vladislav Izmailov, a 26-year-old former convict from the city of Samara in Russia's southwest.

Izmailov claimed to have been recruited by the notorious mercenary unit, the Wagner Group, on September 27, when its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, visited his prison.

He said he was offered offered a contract for six months in exchange for freedom and exemption from criminal punishment, and that some 300 people from his colony agreed to fight in Ukraine.

Izmailov's grandmother and his girlfriend confirmed his identity, and said that he had been imprisoned several times, Nestka reported.

Before revealing his experience on the front line, Izmailov said he wanted to give an interview because he "decided to tell the whole truth."

He said "everything turned out to be different" when he and his fellow soldiers arrived in Ukraine after a two-week training course.

"They said the death rate was low. But in fact, the mortality rate is very high. Few remain alive, and it will be difficult to make it through these six months alive, "said Izmailov.

When pressed on the reports that Russian men are being executed if they attempt to abandon their positions on the front line, Izmailov said he witnessed the deaths of two soldiers in his unit after they displayed fear in battle.

"In the first assault, I was the second group. The evacuation team was ahead of me. There were two people there who were just scared. Artillery worked. They were frightened - [their] first time in the war. And then these two were 'nullified' at the base," Izmailov said.

"They were digging their own grave, they were simply shot and buried."

According to Idel.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service, in April 2017, Izmailov was handed a prison sentence of one year and eight months for robbing a friend and stealing a car to sell its parts.

The Wagner Group has been recruiting large numbers of prisoners for Putin's war in Ukraine. The mercenary unit has been recruiting in penal colonies in far-flung regions of Russia, according to Olga Romanova, head of the prisoner advocacy group Russia Behind Bars.

Relatives of prisoners serving sentences in St. Petersburg told investigative media outlet Important Stories that the Wagner Group is offering 200,000 rubles ($3,164) and an amnesty for six months of "voluntary" service in the Donbas region—if the prisoners return alive.

Yevgeny Nuzhin, a former Russian convict who was recruited in July by the Wagner Group and gave a string of interviews after he was captured by Ukrainian forces in September, was executed last month.

Footage of his killing was published in November by the Wagner-linked Telegram channel Grey Zone. The clip showed an unidentified man hitting Nuzhin, 55, with a sledgehammer.

Nuzhin had in his interviews criticized Russian officials and said he wanted to switch sides.

Prigozhin said the footage was "excellent directorial work that's watchable in one sitting," while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "it was not our business."

Newsweek has contacted Russia's foreign ministry for comment.

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via worldnews@newsweek.com.