In spliced video, Russian officer released by Wagner mercenaries describes torture, upbraids Prigozhin for self-promotion
Lieutenant Colonel Roman Vinivitin, whose capture was previously reported by Evgeny Prigozhin’s press service, has released a video in which he accuses the paramilitary cartel of grotesque violations against troops in the regular army.
One of the news channels that shared the video disclaims having received it from an “unknown account,” via message requests. The footage itself suggests that, in places, the speaker is reading from a script or taking cues from another person. The video has also been spliced.
Among other things mentioned on camera, Vinivitin speaks about being tortured and taunted by the mercenaries who captured him, and accuses Prigozhin of undermining the Russian military with his statements.
Vinivitin identifies himself as the former commander of the Russian army’s 72nd brigade. He claims that Wagner fighters stopped him while he was doing his rounds checking on his units. After an obscene confrontation, the mercenaries allegedly captured Vinivitin. In his own words,
they kept me in a basement, tormenting me as no embittered Russian soldier would ever torment a captive Ukrainian soldier. They beat me, wouldn’t let me sleep, dragged me out of the basement three times a night, acting as if they were about shoot me.
Vinivitin also said that earlier footage of his interrogation by Prigozhin’s mercenaries had been made under duress, alleging further cases of regular army troops being tortured by Wagner fighters:
Our servicemen have been abducted and subjected to physical violence and the methods of demeaning their honor and dignity. For example, a petty officer of one of our battalions was abducted. They tortured him, kept him naked on a cold basement floor, sprayed acid and other chemicals into his eyes, which led to a temporary loss of vision. They poured gasoline over him and threatened him with a lighter.
According to Vinivitin, another “outrageous case” took place last spring, when a Russian serviceman committed suicide after being sexually assaulted by Wagner mercenaries stationed nearby, in a deliberate attempt to “unman” him.
Criticizing Prigozhin’s publicity efforts as “political spin,” he said that Wagner Group could not have captured Bakhmut, Soledar, or Popasna in Ukraine if not for the coordinated support from the regular army, including the Chechen Akhmat battalion and other formations.
Vinivitin denies Prigozhin’s allegations that his brigade had mined the back of Wagner Group’s positions, calling them a product of the Prigozhin PR team’s “inflamed imaginations.”