MEMBERS of Putin’s brutal private army are believed to have beaten a Russian conscript to death using a sledgehammer after he joined the Ukraine army.
Convicted murderer Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, is seen being smashed in the face with a sledgehammer in a barbaric uncensored video in what is deemed an extrajudicial killing by the notorious Wagner group.
He is thought to have been killed “for treachery”.
In September there had been reports that the convicted killer had defected to Ukraine soon after arriving to fight for Vladimir Putin at the front.
He spoke on video at the time saying he had felt like “cannon fodder” in the Russian forces.
He told a Ukrainian journalist Yury Butusov that he had decided in advance to surrender to Ukraine, where some of his family live.
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According to pro-Russia source Grey Zone, he was later kidnapped by pro-Moscow forces and made to answer by Wagner - which is headed by close Putin crony Yevgeny Prizohin - for his treachery.
The media outlet posted the graphic and grotesque video, calling it: “Hammer of Vengeance.”
Seconds before the evident fatal blow to his head, Nuzhin said: “I am Yevgeny Anatolievich Nuzhin, born in 1967, who went to the front to go to the side of Ukraine to fight against the Russians.
“On 4 September, I carried out my plan to go over to the side of Ukraine.
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“On 11 November 2022, I was on the streets of Kyiv, where received a blow to the head, as a result of which I lost consciousness.
“I woke up in this basement, where I was told that I was going to be tried.”
He is then hit evidently by a long-handled mallet, and after falling backwards is struck again.
“Those who understand know that a sledgehammer and traitors have a close relationship,” said the pro-Wagner Grey Zone Telegram channel.
Founder of the military charity Dzyga’s Paw Dimko Zhluktenko, who claims to have known Nuzhin, wrote on Twitter: “That is why this morning is very tough for me mentally.
“Because of indefinite cruelty and violence is what Russia is all about.
“This man, Evgeny, was a Russian prisoner of war in Ukraine.
“These are last seconds of his life. I know him and talked to him.”
'BEYOND VIOLENT'
In a later post he added: “PMC Wagner murdered him with gigantic sledgehammer hitting his head - because he became POW. That’s beyond violent.”
He continued: “PMC Wagner claimed full responsibility for this footage - it’s what they do to the exchanged prisoners.
“Pure, pure evil - is what Russia is, even for Russians.”
Wagner - and Progozhin - have threatened deserters and traitors with such summary executions, regardless that they are illegal under Russian law.
The group has recruited tens of thousands of jail inmates to fight for Russia in its illegal war with Ukraine, but those who refuse to fight have been warned of swift vengeance.
Some aspects of the story remain unclear, for example how Nuzhin supposedly returned to Russia.
The claim that he was kidnapped by Wagner agents in Ukrainian capital Kyiv appears implausible, but may have been scripted by Wagner to warn other fighters.
'PRIMORDIAL WAGNERIAN PUNISHMENT'
“Suddenly disappearing from the investigation in Kyiv, the traitor received traditional primordial Wagnerian punishment,” stated Grey Zone.
Russian prisoner human rights group Gulagu.net - strongly anti-Putin - believes the shocking footage is genuine.
“Nuzhin was in a strict regime colony [in Russia and…] he was recruited by [Putin fixer and Wagner-founder] Yevgeny Prigozhin, and almost immediately was taken captive [by Ukraine],” said a post by the group.
“Some time later he did an interview - watched more than eight million times, and said he decided to fight for Ukraine.
“According to our sources, Nuzhin was either re-captured, or passed back to the Russian army, who passed him on to the so-called Wagner Security Service.”
The officers of this sinister private army security service "killed this man with a sledgehammer as a way of revenge for his critics of Putin, and for switching to the side of Ukraine.”
The footage “proves” that Russian special services and Wagner’s ‘security service’ carry extrajudicial executions, and kill prisoners who refuse to fight for Russia, but want to switch to Ukraine”.
It concluded: “Putin and Prigozhin are murderers. They must face justice.”
Former Putin speechwriter Abbas Galyamov said the footage would damage Prigozhin who is said to want to become Russia’s defence minister.
“People would not want to see a person, organising public medieval executions, in power,” he said..
“He also did a very bad service to the regime with that.”
Nuzhin was jailed for 24 years for a 1999 killing, and wounding a second victim.
He had been released after a visit by Putin’s henchman Prigozhin to his prison in Ryazan region.
He told the Ukrainian journalist: “We were in training for seven days, the 7th squad was an assault unit…
“I don't even know how to explain the task of assault squads, I realised for myself - cannon fodder.
“You do something wrong - they zero out, it's called a firing squad.”
He said he defected because he could not go to war against his relatives who live in Ukraine.
Nuzhin had married in jail to a woman named Olga, and they have two sons who have served in the Russian army.
The murderer had also served in the army as a young man.
Last month, a notorious Russian mobster who was freed from prison to fight in the Ukraine war was reportedly executed after trying to flee the frontline.
Zaur Aliyev, 47, released under a controversial scheme which saw him sign up for mad Vlad's private army the Wagner Group, was executed after trying to desert in Ukraine.
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The crime boss was serving an 18-year sentence at one of Russia's infamous penal colonies when he was freed in September under the scheme.
Prigozhin, a close ally of the Russian president, announced the scheme in September, which offers murderers and other hardened criminals their freedom in return for six months of fighting on the frontline.