Two Russian commanders have admitted to killing hundreds of Ukrainian civilians, including 40 children, as well as "tossing grenades" at injured prisoners of war.
Commanders from the Russian paramilitary organisation known as the Wagner group have made the claims in video interviews posted by a Russian human rights organisation.
Alexey Savichev and Azamat Uldarov said they, along with other mercenaries, massacred between 300 and 400 people, including about 40 children who were taking refuge in the basement of a nine-floor block of flats in Bakhmut.
Uldarov described one instance with a young girl: “She was screaming, she was a little kid, she was five or six and I shot her, a kill shot. I wasn’t allowed to let anyone out, you understand?”
The pair were confessing these horrors to Vladimir Osechkin — head of Gulagu.net, the Russian human rights group that published the video.
“I killed children with [my own] hands. As we entered Soledar and Bakhmut, we got the order to destroy everyone: men, women, children, elderly," Uldarov continued, “I want Russia and other nations to know the truth. I don’t want war and bloodshed."
Savichev claimed that troops were ordered to “execute any men who were 15 years or older” in Bakhmut.
The men both allege that orders to murder innocent people came from the Wagner Group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is one of Putin's closest allies.
Prigozhin confirmed that he had seen parts of the video on his Telegram channel and threatened retribution against the two former Wagner fighters.
He said: “I can say the following: if at least one of these accusations against me is confirmed, I am ready to be held accountable according to any laws.
“Regarding the execution of children, of course, no one ever shoots civilians or children, absolutely no one needs this. We came there to save them from the regime they were under.”
Savichev said he was aware of about 70 Russian inmates who had been killed by Wagner forces after refusing to carry out orders.
He also said they had killed at least 60 injured Ukrainian prisoners of war and Russian mercenaries who had tried to desert by “lobbing grenades” into the ditch where they were held near Bakhmut. Anyone not killed by the grenades was incinerated.
Last week, an unverified but widely shared video surfaced of a Wagner soldier decapitating a Ukrainian prisoner of war. Uldarov said the things he did and witnessed in Bakhmut and Soledar were even worse.
Uldarov said he and his fellow soldiers were “hired bastards” and “animals” who had been recruited to fight for Putin.
“Why was I even f***ing born?” he said.
The Guardian has seen Russian disciplinary documents showing that Savichev was released from prison in south-west Russia, on a presidential pardon on September 12.
He was a convicted murderer.
Wagner recruited thousands of brutal inmates to fight in eastern Ukraine and were offered lifelong freedom if they survived the battle.
