Horrible Footage Shows Sledgehammer Execution of Russian Mercenary

A video that seemed to show the execution of a Russian mercenary who tried to switch sides and fight for Ukraine went viral on Russian social media on Sunday. A top Kremlin-connected official saw the video and called the man a traitor.

Sledgehammer Execution of Russian Mercenary

The video seems to show the man confessing before he is killed with a sledgehammer while he is on the ground. It came out at a time when Russia was pointing fingers at its own military for losing ground in Ukraine and nationalist hard-liners were calling for more brutal methods to turn the tide in Moscow’s favor. In the most recent turn of events, Russian forces left Kherson, which was the only regional capital they had taken this year.

What happened With Yevgeny Nuzhin?

In the video, which was posted on a Telegram channel that Russian media often links to the mercenary company Wagner Group, the man said he was a former prisoner named Yevgeny Nuzhin. He said he had quit his job earlier this year “to fight against the Russians.”

But he said that after he got to Ukraine last week, he was taken away and woke up in a cellar where he was being held. He said that the people who had him told him, “You will be tried.”

After he said those words, a man behind him hit him in the neck with a sledgehammer. Mr. Nuzhin fell backward, and the man hit him with the sledgehammer again while he was on the ground.

Sledgehammer Execution of Russian Mercenary
Sledgehammer Execution of Russian Mercenary

The Gray Zone, which was the Telegram channel that showed the video, called it “The Hammer of Revenge.”

The video couldn’t be checked to see if it was real, but the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, seemed to back it up in social media posts. Western journalists in Ukraine also knew who Mr. Nuzhin was. The Kremlin hasn’t said anything about the video in public, and Mr. Prigozhin couldn’t be reached right away for more information than what he said online.

When Ukrainian forces took Mr. Nuzhin prisoner in September, he gave a wide-ranging interview with a Ukrainian military journalist. This gave a look into how Mr. Prigozhin’s mercenary group works, which has been recruiting inside Russian prisons to add to the ranks of volunteers and professional mercenaries in the country.

Mr. Nuzhin said he was a convicted killer who joined the Wagner Group in exchange for a pardon. He said Mr. Prigozhin personally recruited him and other inmates when he flew a helicopter to a prison yard in the Russian city of Ryazan.

He said that once the prison recruits got to the front, they were used to feed the guns. Mr. Nuzhin said he switched sides to fight against Russia after joining a unit that was nearly wiped out in the first two days by Ukrainian artillery.

No one could figure out how he got into Russian hands.

In response to a question about the video, Mr. Prigozhin posted a statement on his group’s Telegram account saying that Mr. Nuzhin was a traitor and that the video should be called “For the dog, a dog’s death.”

In his statement, Mr. Prigozhin said, “Nuzhin betrayed his people, betrayed his friends, and did so on purpose.” “The Russian people can smell betrayal because it’s in their genes.”

Mr. Prigozhin is a strong supporter of Mr. Putin, and for years, he has used his Wagner Group to help carry out Russia’s military interventions abroad. His power in Russia has grown as a result of the war in Ukraine. He has been able to get more people to join the Wagner Group and has blamed Russia’s professional military for the failures of its forces on the battlefield.

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