Late last summer, a plot of land on the outskirts of a small farming community in southern Russia began to fill with countless newly dug graves of militants killed in Ukraine. Resting places were decorated with simple wooden crosses and colorful wreaths bearing the insignia of the Wagner Group of Russia – the feared and secretive private army.
At the time of Reuters’ visit in late January, the site on the outskirts of the village of Bakinskaya in the Krasnodar Krai had about 200 graves. The press has collated the names of at least 39 of his deceased here and three of his other cemeteries nearby against Russian court records, public databases and his social media accounts.
Reuters also spoke to his family, friends and lawyers about some of the dead. Many of the men buried at Bakinskaya were prisoners recruited by Wagner last year after founder Evgeny Prigozhin promised amnesty if the prisoners survived six months on the front lines, the report said. is shown. Among them were hitmen, murderers, professional criminals, and people with alcohol problems.
In early January, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti released footage of Prigozhin visiting the cemetery, crossing himself and laying flowers on the grave. rather than return him to his relatives, said he preferred to be buried in the Wagner Chapel outside the nearby town of Goryach Klyuch. offered. In 2019, Reuters reported that Wagner’s training camp was located in the village of Molkino, about 9 km from Bakinskaya.
One of the youngest of them buried at the nearby Martanskaya Cemetery is Vadim Pushnya. He was only 25 years old when he passed away on November 19th. Pushnya was imprisoned in 2020 on charges of breaking into a garage, beer store and cement factory near Wagner Chapel in his hometown of Goryachiy Klyuch. Pushnya’s grave date of birth matches the date listed on his social media accounts and court records.
The Kremlin, the Russian Ministry of Defense and Russian prison authorities have not responded to questions regarding this article. The Russian government has so far praised Wagner’s warriors for their “brave and selfless actions.” Wagner’s founder Prigogine also declined to comment, but previously said he gave prisoners “a second chance at life”.
Reuters could not confirm the exact location of the man’s death, but one man’s mother said his son died in the Donetsk region, and several other social media accounts also said they died before they died. It shows that I was in Ukraine. Her life is a dark focus on the realities of Russia’s criminal underclass. Wagner founder Prigozin told Russian news site RBC in December that prisoners should “atone for their crimes.” “I’m giving you an opportunity,” he said. In January, he appeared with the first group of fighters to be pardoned after surviving a deployment in Ukraine. It called for criminalizing acts and publications that discredit combatants and banning the disclosure of their criminal histories. “People who risk their lives every day and die for their country are portrayed as second-class citizens, depriving them of the right to atone for their sins,” he wrote.Mr Borodin did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
