Wagner PMC revelations demonstrate genocide intent in Ukraine

Both convicted criminals who were released from prison in order to join the Wagner private military company (PMC), have now finished their contracts and returned to Russia. Over the span of a week, they were interviewed by a Russian human rights group. On April 17, a 77-minute video was released on the internet.

The interviews describe the slaughter of innocent civilians in Bakhmut and Soledar in the east of Ukraine in February and March of this year. They tell of the execution of at least 20 Ukrainian children and 10 teenagers.

From the video, we learn that Wagner commanders gave orders to "eliminate" everyone in Soledar and Bakhmut and that this involved the "clearing" of residential buildings through the massacre of everyone inside them. The two ex-mercenaries give the example of a nine-story building in Bakhmut in which 300-400 civilians and about 40 children were in the basement, all of whom were murdered.

They also describe the explosion of a pit containing more than 50 wounded Ukrainian prisoners of war together with Wagner fighters who refused to carry out orders to kill Ukrainians.

We also learn that Wagner mercenaries do not take prisoners and routinely murder captured Ukrainian soldiers, usually using a knife, but at times a sledgehammer. These executions are filmed.

"We were ordered to clear the area and eliminate everyone. We were 150 Wagnerites, and we killed everyone - women, men, pensioners, and children as young as five years old," one ex-mercenary says.

These revelations expose the genocidal intent behind Russia's invasion of Ukraine. There are orders being given and carried out to murder Ukrainians because they are Ukrainian. This is not the first time this tactic has been used in Ukraine. One of the commanders referred to has the call sign "Stalin", after the Soviet dictator who orchestrated the Holodomor artificial famine to destroy the Ukrainian peasantry while eliminating the Ukrainian intelligentsia through imprisonment and execution.

These revelations come not long after the release of footage of Ukrainian soldiers being decapitated by Russian troops and a video recording of a single unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war being shot dead.

Wagner is a private military company of mercenaries, named after Hitler's favourite composer. It is not a part of the Russian military but has fought for Russia in other conflicts, including Libya and Syria.

It was involved in the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the beginning of this war. The Wagner PMC is thought to have between 40,000 and 80,000 mercenaries and it recruits from prisons: up to 80 per cent are inmates who have been pardoned in exchange for joining the company.

Australian military expert Mick Ryan has called them "extraordinarily violent" and made the point that recruiting from prisons leads to irresponsible use of violence. Wagner PMC uses systematic and systemic brutality, and there have been many reports of Wagner's use of atrocities as a method of waging war.

The Wagner group is currently fighting in Bakhmut - the epicentre of fighting in the east of Ukraine. Wagner losses have been heavy - many thousands have been killed and the Wagner PMC is infamously known for not evacuating its wounded and not retrieving bodies of dead fighters.

Wagner's involvement in the war is significant firstly because there have been problems with Russian mobilisation (more men of fighting age left Russia than were mobilised in the first recruitment) and secondly because Russia's conventional military was not able to achieve any of its aims during the four-month "winter offensive", which included the supposed capture of the entire eastern region of Donbas by March 31.

Wagner PMC is headed by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, nicknamed "Putin's cook", because he owns restaurants and catering companies that serve the Kremlin. He is a contentious figure in Russia because he may have his own political and presidential aspirations that would ultimately challenge Putin's control.

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Right now, the relationship between Putin and Prigozhin is not clear.

Over the last few months, Prigozhin has been highly critical of senior Russian military leaders. He has also accused the Russian Ministry of Defence of not supplying him with necessary support.

It now appears that the military leadership acknowledges Wagner's role in Russia's attempt to take control of Bakhmut, and Wagner forces appear to be receiving mobilised recruits, ammunition and political recognition within Russia.

According to both former Wagner fighters, Prigozhin personally ordered executions of soldiers and mass murders of civilians. Their testimony provides further evidence of crimes against humanity perpetrated by Russian proxy and Russian military forces in Ukraine.