Vladimir Putin is pumping soldiers full of drugs so they can fight for hours in Ukraine, it has been claimed.
Convicts freed to fight for the shadowy Wagner Group militia now make up a huge section of the Russian army after being offered a shot at freedom should they survive the war that has already killed 100,000 of their countrymen.
Reports from the frontline say the prisoners are being used as suicidal kamikaze-like battering rams sent ahead of more experienced soldiers to burst through Ukraine's hardened defences.
Speaking from the besieged city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian soldiers Andriy and Borisych said they've been battling with hundreds of deranged Wagner fighters who seemed superhuman as they could keep fighting despite being riddled with gunshot wounds.
There is a long and detailed history of narcotics being used in conflict to give an army the edge over an enemy.
In WW2, Hitler's troops were famously given methamphetamine to carry out the Blitzkrieg or "Lightning War".
It gave them a ferocious edge over the allies and allowed them to go days and days without sleep in a hyper-aggressive state.
Recalling the horrific scenes, Andriy said: "They're climbing above the corpse of their friends, stepping on them.
"It looks like it's very, very likely that they are getting some drugs before attack."
The soldier remembered one particularly horrendous battle in which he and 19 comrades fought as 200 Russians stormed their positions for 10 grinding hours.
Their guns became so hot they had to keep changing them.
The horror assault was terrifying, Andriy said, and despite firing endless rounds of ammunition, the invaders wouldn't die.
He said: “Our machine gunner was almost getting crazy, because he was shooting at them.
"And he said, I know I shot him, but he doesn’t fall. And then after some time, when he maybe bleeds out, so he just falls down.”
Andriy said it was like a scene from a horror movie.
“They’re climbing above the corpse of their friends, stepping on them,” he said.
The claims have not been independently verified, but experts say Russian soldiers could be fighting and committing the atrocities they've been accused of while under the influence.
Wagner Group boss refuted claims that drug abuse was rife in the company's week in a sarcastic response to CNN.
CNN reached out to Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin this week about allegations of abuse in the company’s ranks.
He insisted Wagner is an “exemplary military organisation that complies with all the necessary laws and rules of modern wars.”
It comes after a former member of the private military contractor who's seeking asylum in Norway apologised to Ukrainians living in the Scandinavian country, who object to his presence there.
"I'm a scoundrel to you, but I only ask you to take into account that I have come to realise that, albeit belatedly, and I spoke against all that," Andrey Medvedev said in an excerpt from his interview to Norwegian broadcaster NRK that was posted online Tuesday.
"I ask you not to condemn me, and in any case I apologise."
Medvedev who has said that he fears for his life if he returns to Russia, lives in a centre for asylum seekers in Oslo. He illegally crossed into Norway, which has a 198km (123-mile) long border with Russia, earlier this month.
Medvedev has said that he left the Wagner Group after his contract was extended beyond the July-November timeline without his consent. He said he's willing to testify about any war crimes he witnessed and denied participating in any himself.
He earlier reportedly told Russian dissident group Gulagu.net that he is ready to tell everything he knows about the shady a private military company and its owner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a millionaire with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Norway's National Criminal Investigation Service, which takes part in the investigation of war crimes in Ukraine, has said it's questioning Medvedev who "has the status of a witness."
