Russian mercenary who ‘defected to Ukraine’ executed with sledgehammer
- Unverified video on Telegram shows a man being executed with a sledgehammer blow to his head
- Wagner PMC’s founder said the former mercenary was executed after changing sides to Ukraine
Russia’s Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said on Sunday that a former mercenary who was filmed being executed by a sledgehammer blow to the head after changing sides in the Ukraine war was a traitor.
Prigozhin, a Russian businessman who founded the Wagner private military group, was responding to an unverified video distributed on Telegram that showed a man identified as a former Wagner mercenary being executed after admitting that he had changed sides in September to “fight against the Russians”.
In the footage, the man, who gave his name as Yevgenny Nuzhin, 55, was shown with his head taped to a brick wall. He said he was abducted in Kyiv on October 11 and came around in a cellar.
“I got hit over the head and lost consciousness and came around in this cellar,” he said. “They told me I was to be tried.”
As he said those words, an unidentified man loitering in combat clothing behind Nuzhin, smashed a sledgehammer into the side of his head and neck.
Nuzhin collapsed on to the floor and the unidentified man delivered another blow to his head.