Two captured Russian mercenaries have told the Mirror how they signed up for the Ukraine frontline after being told they were at war with the West - including the UK.
Both hardened Wagner Group fighters - a convicted killer and a thug jailed for brawling - were recruited whilst behind bars by one of Russian President Putin’s top aides.
They signed up after Yevgeny Prigozhin - dubbed “Putin’s chef” - flew to their jails by helicopter and promised them “a clean sheet” and 200,000 rubles a month.
And today they told how they were thrown into the horrors of war, seeing comrades slaughtered as worthless cannon fodder ahead of the Russian Army.
One even admitted he had killed Ukrainian soldiers but did not know how many and claimed notorious Wagner Group fighters were at the front of every battle.
Their chilling accounts, revealed in an exclusive interview to the Daily Mirror, were secured after negotiations with Ukraine’s authorities ahead of Friday’s one-year invasion anniversary.
It is believed to be the first time a British newspaper has interviewed captured Wagner Group prisoners.
Both men were clad in balaclavas for their own safety as their Ukrainian captors agreed to protect their anonymity in case they are killed if they are ever released.
Convicted murderer Viktor, a married father-of-two from Stavropolsky region in Kavkaz, southeast Russia, was jailed for stabbing a Chechen to death in a club brawl.
Already in his ninth year of a 20-year sentence he joined Wagner Group after the organisation’s founder, Bond-style villain Prigozhin helicoptered into his penal colony prison to recruit fighters.
The cold-eyed 32-year-old told the Daily Mirror: “We were told other countries were involved in the war in Ukraine, including Britain and that we were defending Russia against foreign terrorists.
“We were told we would not be fighting civilians, but fascists and soldiers from other countries.
“I had killed a man and was in the ninth year of my sentence. He was in a group of Muslims, Chechens in a club and a fight with knives started. I killed him.
“I met Yevgeny Prizoghin and in total 200 of us agreed to join Wagner Group in exchange for a fresh start, money and I would be able to get a job after leaving Ukraine.
“With a criminal record I would not get a job and I felt I had no choice, even though it took a week for me to decide to join Wagner.”
Viktor, an ex-builder, gripped his hands and stared back coldly, sometimes menacingly throughout our hour-long interview, mentioning his murdering a man with a shrug.
It was “regrettable” but he mentioned it like it was an inconvenience, a glitch in his life that was perhaps unavoidable.
Joining Wagner Group - Russia’s most notorious mercenary organisation - earned him a promised £2,200 a month and his criminal record would be wiped off.
After signing up in September last year he was taken by bus to Rostov, close to Ukraine and then to Luhansk, in Donbas, inside Ukraine, with 200 others from his prison.
Out of 5,000 Wagner Group fighters initially signed up for Ukraine around 1,000 died within weeks. Eventually, it is suspected as many as 50,000 were sent.
They underwent six weeks “very tough training” with assault rifles, machine guns, mines, rocket-propelled grenades and some with sniper rifles.
After training they were sent into battle in assault squads, quickly realising they were being lied to. He recalled: “I was nervous, yes. I did not know where I would be sent to and even now my family do not know I joined the Wagner Group.
“We’d be sent in groups of 15 against what they said were just ten Ukrainian soldiers, then we’d discover there were up to 40 Ukrainians.
“In the first battle a sniper was shooting, injuring our men, then he killed two. It was my first time and I saw someone lose a leg.”
Even Viktor’s experience in one of Russia’s “strict regime penal colonies” with its daily knife fights, beating and even murders did not prepare him for war.
He said: “It was very frightening. I saw arms and legs being shot off in battles. It was horrible and shocking. More than 1,000 of us were killed.”
After just four “battles” in Donbas Sergey was injured in the back and neck from shrapnel and as he lay, the Ukrainians took him prisoner.
His career with Wagner Group lasted just three and a half months, although he says: “I know I killed Ukrainian soldiers but I don’t know how many.
He says: “I was not beaten and the Ukrainians treated me well. I have nothing against them.
“We were shown a video when we joined, suggesting if we got captured we would be killed.
“I was not relieved to be captured as I thought I was going to be killed.
“But that did not happen. Now I don’t know what will happen to me.”
With an unemotional stare he added defensively: “Look, I did not start this war and I am sorry that Russia did. War is bad because civilians are killed but I didn’t do that.
“Maybe I will be released back to Russia.”
We asked the hardened killer if he wanted to see his wife and children again, he laughs, strikingly, his first show of emotion for an hour.
Both men were dressed in combat fatigues and boots and were not forced to talk to us by their captors.
Despite the grisly past of these two men we were asked by Ukrainian authorities to pixelate their eyes as an extra measure to avoid them being identified by Wagner Group hit squads in the future.
Armed troops were nearby throughout and we had arrived at the secret location, somewhere in Ukraine, after being escorted on foot whilst our route was checked to see if we had been followed.
Car mechanic Anatoliy, 26, is from Samara, central Russia, and is also a married father.
He had 18 months left on his three years and six-month sentence for brawling when Prizoghin flew into his prison looking for recruits.
Prigozhin, who has also served nine months behind bars for crimes, gained a fortune by catering for Putin’s big Kremlin social events.
Asked if he spoke to Prigozhin, Anatoliy says: “Yes I met him. “He’s a serious man.
“I signed up for Wagner and everyone makes his own decisions.
“I had no idea where I was going - but I understood we would fight in Ukraine.”
And with startling pride, he breathed in and said: “I discovered there is a difference between the Wagner Group and the regular Army.
“We were doing full-scale attacks and I was in five big battles and Wagner Group was always ahead of the Army.”
Anatoliy was captured by Ukrainian forces after he and his Wagner comrades were sent into a battle against Kyiv’s forces in Donbas.
And he too discovered Wagner fighters were being sent in vastly outclassed by Ukrainian forces, in terms of military tactics.
He said: “First a sniper killed ten of my fellow troops.
“Another guy was injured and I gave him first aid.
“Eventually I was alone, pinned down by Ukrainian forces.
“Wagner Group sent in another detachment of ten men and the sniper killed five of them.
“Eventually I was lying there with no more ammunition, a Ukrainian soldier standing above me with a machine gun.
“He fired into the ground near my legs as a warning. I was then taken prisoner unharmed.”
Despite Wagner Group’s appalling reputation for atrocities against civilians including rape, torture and murder, even hiring sex attackers, he asserts: “I cannot be 100% that it is not the case ever but I didn’t see that and anyway Wagner Group has rules against that.
“Paedophiles and sex attackers cannot join.
“I joined because I wanted a blank page, no criminal record, a better life.
“Obviously I cannot say I made the right choice.
“Wagner Group has a special task - it is not to defend but it is to invade.
“Now I don’t know what will happen to me but I see three possibilities.”
He shrugged and added: “I can be killed, sent home or returned to Russia to fight again.”
