A former commander of Russian paramilitary group Wagner has said to Russian opposition media that he recognizes the two alleged beheaders of a Ukrainian POW to also be Wagner soldiers with whom he was personally acquainted.
Speaking on the Russian Youtube program "Khodorkovsky Live" on the evening of April 12, Vladimir Osechkin, the founder of opposition media outlet Gulagu.net reported that he had been in contact with Andrei Medvedev, the former Wagner fighter in question, who sought asylum in Norway after leaving the group.
“He unequivocally recognizes his colleagues there, he can tell they are Wagner PMC fighters by their characteristic call signs, by the way they talk, by what they voice over the radio,” Osechkin said.
The journalist said that Medvedev was helping to confirm the exact identities of the alleged.
The video of the man being beheaded using a knife circulated on Russian pro-war Telegram channels on the evening of April 11, from where it circulated across social media, prompting widespread outrage among Ukrainians and throughout the world.
A voice heard at the beginning of the video indicates that the victim might have still been alive when the alleged execution started.
Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said it had launched an official investigation into the alleged execution.
"We will find these monsters. If necessary, we will get them wherever they are: from under the ground or from another world. But they will definitely be punished for what they have done," said SBU Head Vasyl Maliuk.
"This is a video of Russia as it is… of Russia trying to make that the new norm, such a habit of destroying life," said President Volodymyr Zelensky in an address reacting to the video on April 12.
"This is not an (isolated) accident or episode. This has happened earlier. This has happened in Bucha. (This has happened) a thousand times."
Asami Terajima
(Updated: )
