We crawled for four days. Prisoner Platov's War

In 2022, 35-year-old native of Ulyanovsk Alexander Platov, who was imprisoned for the murder of his wife, was “lucky” - he was recruited into the Wagner PMC. Six months later, he came home as a free man, but a peaceful life was not for him. At the end of 2024, he signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense and returned to the front. This time the former mercenary and his comrades were used as “cannon fodder.” Miraculously surviving, riddled with shrapnel wounds, Platov shared his story with Lukas Jalalis especially for the “Protocol”.

“ It was hard for me in civilian life. I'm a convict. In the yard, everyone knew that I had been sitting there more than once, a drinker... And not directly, of course, but behind my back they said that I was supposedly saving my skin there. It was hard to survive mentally. I thought that they would perceive me as a hero, but they perceived me... as they perceived me.

Alexander was born in Ulyanovsk in 1987, grew up in a poor family. I broke the law for the first time at the age of 17.

- I got caught stealing. Hooliganism, the court regarded it as such. Previously, for murder they gave 5 years, and for hijacking with a group of people - from 6. I was given 8. Well, I served them, got out, one might say, rethought my life, got married. My wife began to cheat, I, in short, stabbed her to death, I was imprisoned again, this time for 13 years, not strict, but special.

Alexander admits that even in prison he continued to get into trouble. For example, he once took and burned a camera, but he couldn’t explain why - “it just happened.” From prison he ended up in the Wagner group. Platov does not hide his admiration for her. In his opinion, “humanity has not come up with anything better.”

He says that then, in the fall of 2022, Yevgeny Prigozhin himself came to the colony for recruitment, landing in his helicopter on the prison parade ground.

— To be honest, we didn’t take him seriously at first. At first I spoke to him impudently, because I didn’t understand what was going on. The guards took me aside, and Uncle Zhenya took me by the ear and said: “If you don’t go to Wagner, you’ll rot here . ” Well, you understand, prison, convicts are such backward people, they just have to go somewhere other than prison. Most did just that. I myself went partly because of freedom, and in order to wash away my sins with blood and sweat.

According to the head of the human rights organization “Russland hinter Gittern eV” and sociologist Yuri Borovskikh, Prigozhin managed to recruit about 50 thousand prisoners to Wagner, and the Ministry of Defense - more than 100 thousand. The human rights activist explains that such a stir is especially common among those who are afraid of being re-imprisoned.

“For prisoners, this is almost the only way.” If a person sits down again, he knows what prison is - and does not want to be there. But going to war is just a chance. Firstly, the conditions are still not prison, secondly, it’s money, thirdly, there is a chance that you will live. Moreover, it must be said that contracts with the Ministry of Defense are now signed not only by some marginal prisoners. We now see that, unfortunately, even people with education and anti-war views, after they have been re-convicted - for economic crimes or for drugs, for example - sign contracts and go there. It's terrible, but that's the reality. They understand what lies ahead. The court sentences him to 10 years, he is offered to sign a contract and go to the SVO and he agrees, we know about such cases.

According to Alexander, while serving in Wagner, he was the commander of a reconnaissance group and participated in the siege of Bakhmut. He adds that then he “killed a lot of guys” and shows a video where, under a song with the refrain “we’re going to kill NATO, we’re going to kill NATO with missiles and tanks with our infantry,” a slide show is shown in which he poses with his colleagues.

— By the way, I was awarded, I have a silver medal for courage, I got it from Putin. I was given [the status of] “Combat Veteran.” Imagine, after two convictions for especially serious crimes! I returned [from the war], got a job, but they didn’t perceive me, maybe because I’m also a drinker. They say: “Well, he’s a prisoner there, he bought a medal, he saved his own skin.” Well, I went to the military registration and enlistment office, signed a contract and went to “defend our homeland,” as it seemed to me then.

Yuri Borovskikh explains that it is incredibly difficult for people like Platov to adapt to life outside of war or a colony due to a whole set of traumas.

— A person who has prison experience, especially Russian, with frequent psychological pressure and torture, is traumatized. Here one trauma is superimposed on another: returning from prison or from war, a person has a full range of mental disorders, this distinguishes them from people “from civilian life.” PTSD resulting from war simply catalyzes and intensifies the trauma of incarceration. Even if a person’s criminal record is cleared, everyone is afraid of him and this fear is justified. Often people return, commit a new crime, and everything goes according to plan. If earlier, in Soviet times, it was “stole, drank, went to prison,” now “served, fought, got out, killed and back through prison to the Northern Military District.” What will he do in society?

According to Alexander, he was sent to fight in the Pokrovsky direction, this time as the commander of an assault detachment.

“The Ministry of Defense, pissed off like dogs, threw us into the militia. Do you know what this is? The 110th brigade is fucked up. Where they don't give kickbacks or anything. Here these [Ukrainians] seemed to be tired of fighting, as if they were ending, and the Ministry of Defense sent our type of “special forces” - former participants of the North Military District, those who went through Chechnya, former Wagner prisoners, like me. And my health, you know, is not great, I’m not an alpha special forces. But there are no kickbacks.

— What do you mean by “kickbacks”?

“Well, that is, just forward,” Platov sighs heavily, “back only in two years, if the skeleton is found there in the armored armor and identified by DNA, then you will come home, but otherwise, no.” No vacations, forward and forward, not a step back.

This is not the first time that the 110th Motorized Rifle Brigade has been mentioned in the media. In November 2024 , Mediazona investigators reported that servicemen of this brigade held an entrepreneur of Chechen origin in a dog kennel on the territory of a military unit for two days, trying, in his words, to “squeeze out the business.” Mediazona’s interlocutor Ruslan Chingaleev was subjected to a similar “punishment,” whose criminal record, like Platov’s, was annulled after serving in the PMC.

The attitude of the command towards former prisoners who have already escaped, according to Alexander’s stories, is not much different from the attitude towards “fresh” recruits from prisons. According to Yuri Borovskikh, now prisoners are no longer released after six months of service - the contract is valid until the end of the war. In addition, this category of military personnel turns out to be absolutely powerless.

— There are several penal battalions, like this brigade or Storm Z. The employees there are of no interest to anyone; many have neither relatives nor relatives. They go to this “SVO”, among other things, to be needed by someone. It is clear that their lives are in the hands of their commanders. These are marginal people who, if free, would be homeless and would waste themselves, they are simply not pitied. If a person has some military experience, he is more valuable from a command point of view. Can make some strategic decisions, command, control the drone. What is a recruited prisoner, who often has no education at all, good for? Is it just to launch him into a meat assault?

Alexander Platov believes that the 110th Brigade exists, among other things, to “punish” former Wagnerites.

— There are no real “Wagners” here. Here the “formers” are former prisoners, the underdogs. Real "Wagner" in Africa or Belarus. If they come, the whole [Ukraine] will be fucked. And Russia will be fucked, they didn’t get to Shoigu. Here the militia is just an ass. The only thing they gave out was a machine gun. All. I bought everything else, from underpants to socks to helmets, at my own expense. Here we have a salary of 210-250 thousand, all of it goes, - says Alexander, - on food, on everything in general, as you want, you survive.

- How is your command going to fight if they are not even ready to feed you?

“But they don’t fucking fight.” There is no progress at all in the Pokrovsk direction, zero. My first combat mission was in Green Field, I personally took it with my group. We fucking took this village, they told us to “roll back”, change positions. Do you know who they sent to replace us? Marines. They came, they themselves were in awe: contract soldiers from the Black Sea Fleet, which no longer exists, sank 25 flagships. There was a man there who said that the last time he swore a machine gun was 20 years on a submarine. “They told me that I would go and guard kindergartens in Donetsk,” fuck. And they were thrown into the nearest forest regiments, to the most advanced positions. Their weapons include a machine gun and two magazines. The Bradley simply drove up 200 meters to them, destroyed everything, landed troops, they killed everyone and left. They didn’t even take a position, but if they had known (about the quality of the fighters and equipment), they would have taken all three positions. How many guys died in this Green Field... It’s no longer ours, if that’s the case. It seems to be ours, but ours are not there, in the village itself for sure.

The next task turned out to be the destruction of Platov’s now detachment. He explains that the main reason is the incompetence and fantastic rigidity of his command.

— As we had in “Wagner”: every 200-250 meters there are positions. If you get hurt, you know that they can drag you away. And here we were advancing from Ocheredino, they threw us 25 kilometers. Go ahead on foot. Without support, without anything, take provisions with you, the more, the better. I’m the commander of the assault group, but we didn’t even get to the assault. Three survived - I left them so that communications could reach the headquarters - one after 12 kilometers, another after another five and the third after 2.5. All nine of us were simply torn apart.

According to Platov, he received an order from headquarters to move forward: “We raised our drone, we are leading you.” Platov reported that there were five Ukrainian drones around and not a single one of his own, but the command was adamant: “If you don’t move out now, our kamikaze will fly into your trench.”

- And that’s it, we didn’t even reach the line of contact, we were devastated by these kamikazes. First my right leg was injured, then my left. Then he fell, began to crawl, threw off his helmet and armor, and it hit me tangentially in the back and left hand. There are fragments everywhere in both legs, left arm and lower back, and in the spine too.

According to Platov, there is no evacuation at all in this brigade; he crawled for four days and will never forget these 25 kilometers. Of the nine people, two crawled out.

- We drank urine. You know, these tablets are effervescent, ACC, against viruses. We peed in a bottle, threw a pill in there and then drank it, and so on for four days. And when they crawled out, they almost presented me as an enemy of Russia. There is no group, they say: “You’re a fucking commander.” And their favorite: “You’re a Wagnerian, why couldn’t you?” It wasn’t me who gave the orders, but they at this fucking headquarters: “Come on, let’s move out, our charge will run out in five minutes.” They don't give a fuck. Well, who are they writing it off to? To the commander. And they also told me to go back and forward, to which I told them that they were fucked. In the end they said: “Okay, rollback, let’s see what’s wrong with you.”

Platov is sure that this would be impossible at Wagner. And not because of equipment or training.

— There, initially, from the very roots, everything was built on brotherly relations. They even forbade us from swearing, let alone pointing at someone. In the Ministry of Defense there is “Comrade Colonel”, “Comrade Commander”, but in Wagner there is no such thing. There's brother, little brother. No titles, nothing, everyone is like family, they attack and fight because they know that there is a brother next to you. But that's not the case here. They treat us in this militia as Ukrainians, only from the other side. They say on TV that there is forced mobilization in Ukraine. The same thing happened in Donetsk, VP-shniki (Military police - note “Protocol”) stopped the minibus, put everyone off, women with children, back, and all the men - to the front.

The fact that recruited prisoners at the Wagner PMC were treated in some ways more mercifully is confirmed by a BBC investigation . Based on open data, journalists indicate that the life expectancy of “Wagner” prisoners at the front was significantly higher than that of those who got to the front through a contract with the Ministry of Defense. And the “brotherly” relations that Platov talks about can be explained by the specifics of recruitment to “Wagner” and the fact that the intra-prison hierarchy could “flow” there.

“Wagner was Prigozhin’s personal initiative, less streamlined, bureaucratic and regulated,” explains human rights activist Yuri Borovskikh. “They took everyone there, including the lower prison hierarchy, and made them into separate detachments. And the Ministry of Defense acts strictly according to the law that they prescribed for themselves and adopted on November 4th last year. There is a list of articles for which they do not mobilize - this is everything related to politics: that is, extremism, terrorism, an attempt to violently seize power, rebellion. As well as aircraft hijacking and pedophilia. They take everything else.

Now Alexander Platov lives in a hostel at his own expense, since the headquarters refused to admit him to hospitalization due to the alleged lack of beds in the local hospital. But, despite such a disregard for himself, he never rethought his attitude towards the war. Having recovered from his wounds, he plans to return back to the front.

- Yes, of course, until I get fucking revenge on their leg, I won’t come home. But... This isn’t really about revenge, I love my homeland. Everyone says that I went for the money, to save my skin... Well, that’s also true, of course, they gave me 2.5 million for signing the contract, but if they hadn’t given me, I would have gone too. True, I didn’t know that I would end up in this fucking militia.

In an interview with Current Time, Olga Romanova, the leader of Sitting Russia , said that according to the human rights organization, about 25 thousand prisoners were able to be released through the Wagner PMC. And taking into account those who survived by signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense, the number of prisoners who fought back reaches 50 thousand. Against this background, in Russian society there is an increase in crimes committed by SVO veterans: according to the publication 7x7, former war participants have already committed at least 294 murders.