Shot a 5-year-old in the head: confessions of Russian mercenaries

A Russian project has published a video of confessions by prisoners from the Wagner PMC to the murders of Ukrainian children in Bakhmut and Soledar. According to one of the killers, 15-year-old unarmed Ukrainians «can hardly be called civilians.»

The project published the testimonies of two ex-commanders of Wagner PMC units who were recruited to Yevhen Prigozhin's mercenaries from Russian prison colonies: Azamat Uldarov and Oleksiy Savychev.

The criminals are currently in Russia.

Yevhen Prigozhin

During the week, they testified during video and audio interviews and told Gulagu.net founder Volodymyr Osechkin details about 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 leave the war and refused to obey orders to kill Ukrainians), and the clearing of residential buildings with the killing of everyone, including children.

One of the «Wagnerites» admits that he «shot a 5-year-old girl in the head» when they entered Soledar and Bakhmut: «She's screaming, she's a little kid, you know. I shot a 5-6-year-old girl a test shot».

«I fulfilled the order with this hand, I killed the children. You know, on orders. The fact that we ... We were given the command to clear and kill everyone... We were 150 Wagnerians and we killed everyone - women, men, pensioners and children, including little ones - five-year-olds.»

Azamat Uldarov

According to the terrorists, they received a command from Prigozhin to clear Bakhmut. «Do not let anyone through – old people, children. Everyone was to be cleared. In Soledar it was even worse.
Uldarov also said that he «cleared» the basement of a 9-storey building in Bakhmut with 300–400 civilians, including 40 children. The occupier added that «he had no choice» and was ordered to clear everyone.

The terrorist said it happened in March 2023.

«Civilians were leaving. And there was an order: everyone who was 15 (years) and older was to be shot immediately without words. They shot 20-24 people, 10 of them were 15- and 17-year-olds.»

Both ex-commanders of the Wagner PMC units also said that Prigozhin personally gave orders for executions and killings. 

Oleksiy Savychev

None of the occupiers said they were sorry for their crimes in Ukraine. In addition, Uldarov is drunk the entire time in the video.

Uldarov also admitted that the Wagnerites do not take prisoners and practice killing Ukrainian soldiers.

«Mostly with a knife. We cut the throat. We film it on video. When Prigozhin said to use a sledgehammer, we took a sledgehammer and hammered him with it. This is his method. He is a terrible person.»

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

The project «Ukraine: realities» is implemented by the News agency «Konkurent» together with the Civic Movement «SVIDOMI» and the charity organization Global Empowerment Mission in English for readers from other countries to tell the stories of people who survived the horrors of the Russian occupation.

Проєкт «Ukraine: realities» реалізовується Інформаційним агентством «Конкурент» спільно з Громадянським Рухом «СВІДОМІ» та благодійною організацією Global Empowerment Mission на англійській мові для читачів з інших країн аби розповісти історії людей, які пережили жахи російської окупації.