The family of a conscript beaten to death with a sledgehammer by Putin’s private army have expressed their fear over the video of the barbaric execution.
Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, defected to Ukraine but was then reportedly kidnapped and returned to the ruthless Wagner group criminals in Russia.
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Convicted murderer Nuzhin – who was recruited from a penal colony in Russia – was seen on camera with his head tied to a brick wall.
Graphics then showed what he was like hit several times with a sledgehammer in a savage “medieval” version.
The video – titled “Hammer of Vengeance” – was posted on the Wagner-linked Telegram channel The Gray Zone, apparently as a warning to other conscripts what to expect if they abandon their units.
Nuzhin’s family was “shocked” to see it, his traumatized son Ilya, 31, told Russian human rights organization Gulagu.net.
He said: “Our whole family was in tears watching the video.
“He was murdered without any judicial inquiry. He was killed like an animal.”
He added: “I started watching it with my wife. She screamed in horror and I started to shake when I saw that.
“The whole family cried, even those who didn’t like him. The whole family cried.
“Nobody deserves this. Although he was a convict, he served more than 20 years. He was unarmed, a prisoner of war.”
Nuzhin was nearing the end of a 24-year stint for an assassination in 1999 when he was recruited by one of Putin’s closest cronies.
His family said Yevgeny Prigozhin – the head of the Wagner group called “Putin’s chief” – visited him in August in Ryazan’s penal colony No. 3 near Moscow.
After a week’s training, Nuzhin and about 100 other prisoners were then sent forward on August 27, reports say.
But days after arriving, he surrendered to Ukrainian soldiers.
In September he was filmed saying his Wagner unit was “cannon fodder” and he wanted to defect because he couldn’t go to war against his relatives living in Ukraine.
Second son Nikita, 27, said he begged his father, an ex-soldier, not to sign up to fight the mercenaries.
He told the German newspaper Bild: “Both his current wife and I have advised him not to go to Ukraine.
“We begged him not to. But he was stubborn and just told me I didn’t understand everything.”
He added: “I have had no contact with my father since he went to the front, so it is difficult for me to judge why he switched sides.
“I was shown the video at the time and his wife got a call from Ukraine that her husband was there now.
“The shock was all the greater when the second video appeared last Saturday, showing his head being smashed.
“To this day I can’t find the words to describe how I felt the moment I first saw my bound father being executed.”
Both sons – who served in the Russian army while their father was in prison – lashed out at the authorities.
They are trying to find out what happened to his body, but “no one can help us,” Nikita said.
He added: “The Ministry of Defense tells me that in principle nothing can be answered about the people of the Wagner group.
“We want to give him a proper burial.”
‘Medieval’
There is uncertainty about how Nizhin ended up back in it Russia.
In the execution video, he said he was hit on the head while walking in the Ukrainian capital Kiev last week and “woke up in this basement”.
However, his eldest son Ilya thinks he may have been handed over as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia.
He said: “The man wanted to live, he wanted to go back to his family. [Ukrainians] you gave him away to our men.
“I can only say one thing. Our men are fascists, but theirs are exactly the same.”
Catering magnate Progizhin expressed his approval of the vile video, calling Nuzhin a “traitor”.
He said: “Nuzhin betrayed his people, betrayed his comrades, betrayed knowingly.”
The Kremlin distanced itself from the video on Monday. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It was none of our business”.
But human rights activist Vladimir Osechkin said: “Wagner could not have carried out this medieval execution without the approval of the Russian security services.
“There are a lot of questions and I hope we get to the bottom of this.
“Ukraine had a responsibility to Nuzhin and he should not have been exchanged given the dangers he faced in Russia.”
The lawless Wagner group – accused of sickening war crimes – has thousands of prisoners recruited for Putin’s disastrous invasion.
They are promised that their data will be erased and that their families will receive five million rubles (£70,000) if they are killed.
But they are warned that they will be summarily executed if they try to desert.
Some Wagner recruits have been captured with sinister color-coded wristbands show whether they have HIV or other diseases.
Last month, there was reportedly a notorious Russian mobster executed after attempting to flee the front line.
Mafia boss Zaur Aliyev, 47, had been in a penal colony for 18 years when he was released under the controversial scheme.
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