As early as 2019, a video with a shaking of the stomach went viral. It showed four Russian-speaking men in military attire surrounding a man lying on the ground.
They broke his legs with a hammer and then crushed his chest before cutting off his arms, head, and finally setting his body on fire. The man was Hamadi Bhutto, a Syrian army deserter.
His tormentors were employees of the infamous Wagner Group, a private military company (PMC) – mercenaries. The same mercenaries who are now allegedly tasked with assassinating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Green.
The Wagner group filmed this brutal attack in 2017 Syriaincluding the consequences of kicking the man’s head like a soccer ball.
Last December, the EU sanctioned the group and three companies and seven individuals associated with it for what it called “serious human rights violations in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Sudan and Mozambique”.
But now it is reported that the death squads from Wagner’s group are returning to Ukraine. And Zelenski is said to be number one on their murder list, while his family is number two.
There are reportedly 23 other targets, including cabinet members and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, along with his brother Vladimir, who, like Zelensky, are leading figures in the fight against Russia. I have no doubt about the veracity of these reports.
Wagner is a vicious group of thugs who act with impunity. They are not, in fact, the PMC, but the shadowy, sinister hand of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service.
They are carrying out Vladimir Putin’s orders, carrying out dark deeds in which he denies involvement.
Wagner Group, a private military company (PMC) that is now said to be tasked with assassinating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Evgeny Prigogine, left, serves food to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a dinner at Prigogine’s restaurant near Moscow in 2011.
As a Russian security expert, I learned about Wagner soon after he first appeared in 2014 in the Donbass region of Ukraine, which Russia was then trying to destabilize.
Instead of sending regular forces, the Kremlin wanted mercenaries whose actions they could deny.
At the time, numbering only a few hundred veterans of Russian forces, they were ordered to kill separatist leaders who were pro-Russian but disobeyed the Kremlin’s orders. Ukrainians are blamed for the killings.
Founder and leader of Wagner is Dmitry Utkin, a sinister, shaved head, former lieutenant colonel of the Special Forces – Russian special forces. He named it after the Special Forces code name.
Hitler’s favorite composer was the perfect nickname for Utkin because, as one Russian newspaper put it, he “appreciates the aesthetics of the Third Reich” – that is, he is a neo-Nazi. Utkin was sanctioned by the EU for ordering Bhutto’s assassination.
Wagner acted in Syria in 2015, where the Russians wanted to strengthen the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Knowing that sending troops would be unpopular with the Russian people, Putin ordered Wagner to help crush Syrian rebels.
The mercenaries are illegal under Russian law, so Putin denies using them – unbelievable, as Wagner uses a training camp for the Russian military’s special forces. Putin even awarded Utkin a medal.
But his men acted according to their own program in Syria, and in the end the Russian Ministry of Defense, considering them dangerous cowboys, refused to pay them. Putin then turned to Eugene Prigogine, a thug oligarch with a criminal past, to rule Wagner.
The Russian dictator turned to Prigogine when he wanted to do something dirty, such as run the computer “troll farms” that interrupted the US election in 2016, flooding the Internet with misinformation.
Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigogine, dubbed “Putin’s cook”, is called upon whenever Putin wants to do something dirty, writes Professor Mark Galeotti
Vladimir Putin poses with four alleged Wagner officers serving in the Kremlin – who denies any involvement in Russian mercenary groups
In return, Putin gave Prigogine lucrative contracts, including a catering contract for the Russian military, hence his nickname “Putin’s Chef.”
With President Wagner’s support, it expanded to about 4,000 to 5,000 operatives and began to be stationed in Africa, where they were involved in horrific atrocities – indiscriminate shooting of civilians sheltered in a mosque, executions, torture of civilians and humanitarian attacks. organizations.
In 2018, three Russian journalists reporting on Wagner’s activities in the Central African Republic were ambushed and shot dead in cold blood – a specialty of Wagner.
Another Russian journalist investigating the group “fell” to his death from his fifth-floor apartment.
Many of Wagner’s recruits have been released for disciplinary reasons who will not hesitate to burn villages, terrorize civilians or kill women and children, as they did recently in Mozambique.
About two months ago, about 500 Wagner operatives left their various posts in Africa “on leave” and headed to Ukraine to undertake operations under a “false flag”, such as committing atrocities while wearing stolen Ukrainian uniforms, after which is blamed on Ukrainian forces.
They are also there to assassinate Ukrainian leaders. Utkin himself is reported to be there, commanding the killing squads.
It will be difficult for Zelenski to remain both visible to his people and hidden from his enemies.
The Kremlin will supply Wagner with state-of-the-art military equipment, including tracking devices. They may also have informants to warn them of his whereabouts.
They could use a bomb to blow up his vehicle, and then the death squad will come out of hiding to put a bullet in everyone’s head to make sure everyone is dead. Or Zelensky can be shot with a precision long-range sniper rifle.
But Putin will not want Zelensky to become a martyr. You’d better grab him back in Russia and use him as a bargaining chip or torture him until he admits he’s a “Western pawn.”
Whoever captures Zelenski will be richly rewarded. It may not even be Wagner. Groups of brutal Chechen fighters have also been deployed in Ukraine to pursue him.
We must pray that Zelenski continues to avoid these men and the terrible fate they are planning for him.
- Mark Galeotti is an honorary professor at the University College London School of Slavic and Eastern European Studies and author of We Need to Talk About Putin.