A captured Wagner Group member spoke about the Russians' crimes against civilians in Mali
A Russian soldier captured by the Ukrainian Defense Forces spoke about Russian war crimes against the civilian population of Mali. According to him, civilians fell victim to the actions of Russian mercenaries.
Reportedly, while stationed in Mali as part of the Wagner Group, the occupier witnessed the abuse of local residents, whom the Russians used as “living mannequins” for tactical medical training.
“The Russians blew off one of the local men’s legs with a TNT block, and after the traumatic amputation, they practiced applying a tourniquet on him. Later, they shot him in the arm so they could practice stopping the bleeding again. In the end, they left the man to die from his injuries. Another prisoner was used as a “training dummy” to practice stabbing someone in the chest. During another tactical medicine session, they began chopping off the prisoner’s leg with an axe near the knee,” the report states.
According to the Main Intelligence Directorate, such testimonies are not isolated incidents. Previously, international human rights organizations had already documented extrajudicial executions, the burning of homes, enforced disappearances, and attacks on the civilian population in Mali, in which Russian mercenaries were involved.
A video featuring his testimony was published on Wednesday, September 30, by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine as part of the “I Want to Live” project.
A former Wagner fighter described the brutal training of Russian mercenaries in Mali.
The “Wagner Group” militants who remained in the Central African Republic (CAR) following the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin and the transfer of the group’s main assets to Kremlin control, have established a drug empire in the upper reaches of the Ubangi River. Led by Pavel Prigozhin, the son of the PMC’s founder, the group of approximately 500 mercenaries has remained beyond the reach of both local law enforcement and Russian authorities.
At the same time, Russian intelligence services have stepped up their activities in Europe, recruiting former members of the Wagner Group to carry out sabotage operations.
