A new video from Roman Vinivitin, the lieutenant colonel who was abducted by Wagner forces for allegedly endangering their units has accused them of torture and provoking clashes with the military and misrepresenting battlefield conditions.
Vinivitin says been relieved of duty in the video and has vowed to present evidence to law enforcement.
He talked about being tortured by his Wagner captors in the footage posted on several Telegram channels on June 8, Novaya Gazeta reported.
Vinivitin is a lieutenant Colonel in the Russian Army, commander of the 72nd Motorized Rifle Brigade.
He said the Ukrainian military has never abused a prisoner as badly as Wagner did him. He says they’ve abducted other Russian soldiers too, trying to trade them for extra weapons. One POW killed himself afterward from PTSD, he said.
The press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s leader, posted another video of the captured Vinivitin earlier, taken in May.
Wagner claimed that the Russian military personnel mined the road the mercenaries were supposed to use to leave Bakhmut. When the mercenaries tried to clear the territory of mines, their positions were allegedly fired upon by the Russian regular military.
During the shootout, Wagner’s Ural truck was damaged. After that, the mercenaries “took measures to eliminate the aggression and detain” Vinivitin.
On the same day, Prigozhin published a video of the detained lieutenant colonel. In the video, he says that he fired at the Wagner vehicle due to personal hostility, in a drunken state.
After being released from captivity, Vinivitin recorded the new video. In it, he referred to himself as the former commander of the 72nd brigade, spoke out against Wagner, and also told his version of events.
According to the lieutenant colonel, he was driving around his units when Wagner fighters blocked his path. He allegedly disarmed them, but then he was still taken prisoner.
“I as beaten, deprived of sleep, and one night they would simply drag me out of the basement and try to shoot me dead three times. The video of my interrogation was filmed under pressure,” the serviceman said in the video.
He also called the accusation of intentionally mining the Wagner retreat zone nonsense. According to the serviceman, the Russian military carried out actions in their area of responsibility. However, Vinivitin did not deny “tension” with the mercenaries.
