Lieutenant Colonel Venevitin, captured by the Wagner PMC, accused the mercenaries of kidnapping military personnel and stealing tanks

Lieutenant colonel of the Russian army Roman Venevitin, released from the captivity of PMC Wagner, recorded a video in which he spoke about the history of relations between mercenaries and units of the regular Russian army. The video was published by the telegram channels Baza and Beware the News .

In the footage, Venevitin calls himself a former commander of the 72nd brigade and accuses Wagner PMC fighters of a long list of crimes, including kidnapping, torture, death threats, sexualized violence, extortion and theft of military equipment.

In particular, Venevitin says that the mercenaries stole several tanks, artillery pieces and infantry fighting vehicles from his unit. According to him, he is aware of several cases when PMC fighters abducted military personnel, mocked them, forced them to hard physical labor, and then demanded a ransom for them in the form of ammunition.

He also reported about the suicide of a soldier from a neighboring unit after he was kidnapped and raped by mercenaries. According to Venevitin, PMC fighters regularly threaten to kill entire units that follow the orders of their command, and not the requirements of mercenaries.

He also denied accusations of mining by the 72nd brigade of the rear areas of PMC Wagner. “This is all bullshit,” he said, adding that the Wagner PMC does not have any rear areas, but there are rear areas of the 72nd brigade, which was under his command.

Venevitin also told his version of the events that preceded his capture. According to him, during the detour of the positions of the brigade entrusted to him, he was stopped by mercenaries, but they were disarmed and "sent to hell."

Then, according to Venevitin, he was kidnapped by mercenaries, who mocked him for about a day, beat him and imitated preparations for execution several times. The words spoken during the interrogation in the PMC captivity, Venevitin explained by pressure, and his inhibited speech - by shell shock.

He also promised to later publish documentary evidence and testimonies of other military personnel about the crimes committed by PMC fighters.

On June 5, the press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of PMC Wagner, published a video of the interrogation of Venevitin, saying that mercenaries had taken him prisoner. The reason for this, as reported, was allegedly an attack by Venevitin's subordinates and himself on PMC sappers, who cleared mines for the escape routes of mercenaries from Bakhmut. Venevitin himself in the video says that he fired at the PMC fighters "because of personal hostility."

To get top news faster, subscribe to our telegram and twitter .