21/ Drozdov says that "the casualties are absolutely gigantic, because the same rexes are going through the roof. I saw them being taken to hospital or to the basement of a salt mine."
Full-scale invasion and national resilience, broadcasted live.
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Convicts cover Wagner troops; stormtroopers are crazy junkies
16/ The convicts were given the task of providing cover to Wagner assault troops. "Stormtroopers are very different from ordinary mercenaries, they are fucking crazy, they just go ahead. They're convicts too, but they're mostly junkies.
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Ukrainian soldiers shot at by Russians while shouting ‘Our people’
14/ "We were ordered to take the assault. All the time we were being shot at [by the Russians]. We shouted: 'Our people, our people'. And they said: 'Who the fuck are you?'"
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Prigozhin recruits inmate Alexander Drozdov to defend Russia from fascists
8/ Another convict, Alexander Drozdov, was likewise personally recruited by Prigozhin, who appealed to inmates to "defend Russia from "occupiers and fascists" and not let enemies enter our borders." Not all of those who volunteered were accepted, however.
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Ukrainian soldier recounts surrendering after mistaking enemy for allies
7/ "It didn't take us long to crawl towards the Ukrainian positions, we heard shooting and started shouting: "Our people, our people!" And they said: "Get down on the ground!" So I threw away my automatic rifle and surrendered."
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Convicts tired of defending abandoned houses surrender to Ukrainians
6/ Again, the convicts were told to defend abandoned houses. By this time they were fed up and decided to surrender to the Ukrainians.
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Ukrainian soldiers ordered not to retreat in Soledar
5/ They moved to a new location in Soledar in December and were ordered not to retreat: "If you step back, you're screwed, we're only going forward." Vereshchagin says that he "did not go back, because they would have fucked me up."
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Minimal training, poor equipment for soldiers
They were given minimal training, limited to learning how to maintain Kalashnikov automatic rifles. The men were placed in abandoned houses, eight to a house, and told to defend them. They had one machine gun, no grenade launchers, no night vision, no binoculars and no drones.
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Wagner project: Vereshchagin taken to Luhansk children’s camp
3/ Vereshchagin was taken with others to a children's camp in the Luhansk region of Ukraine. "There were no units, no companies, no formations. They unloaded us and said: "You are not Wagner, you are a project, don't even use [your own names]. Because you are just a project.""
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Russian media reports Wagner convicts’ brutal experiences captured by Ukrainians
1/ The independent Russian media outlet 'We can explain' has published accounts from convicts recruited to fight for the Wagner mercenary group. The convicts – who were captured by the Ukrainians, likely at Soledar – have described extraordinarily brutal experiences.