Yevgeny Prigozhin called the accusations of Lt. Col. Roman Vinivitin, the former commander of the 72nd Motorized Rifle Brigade, against the Wagner PMC fighters “absolute nonsense”. In his appeal, Vinivitin accused the PMC fighters of stealing military equipment, torturing soldiers and causing a conflict with the Russian Defense Ministry.
“The video with Vinivitin is absolutely absurd. It is clear that he is trying to justify himself with the fact that due to his bad command, the unit was forced to leave the territory entrusted to him. So, this in no way corresponds to reality, ”replied the boss of Wagner PMC to a request from Russian media.
in circulation, published On Thursday, on the Baza telegram channel, Lieutenant Colonel Vinivitin spoke about the relationship between the PMC Wagner and the Ministry of Defense. “The tensions with the Wagners for me and my brigade began from the first days of our transfer to the direction of Artemovsk (Bakhmut). Wagner PMC fighters stole two T-80 tanks, four guns, one Kamaz and one infantry fighting vehicle,” says Vinivitin.
According to Vinivitin, the PMC fighters threatened the EW company with physical violence, which did not operate “as the Wagners wanted”.
“The foreman of one of our battalions was kidnapped, he was tortured, tortured, doused in the eyes with acid, doused in gasoline. The chief of staff was kidnapped, beaten and thrown tied up in the combat zone”, says the lieutenant-colonel.
He also said that the “Wagnerites” kidnapped fighters and tried to exchange them for ammunition.
This call was preceded by a video with the participation of Vinivitin, published by the press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin. On this document, the lieutenant colonel admits that he disarmed the Wagner PMC rapid intervention group and gave the order to fire on the military Urals with fighters.
Even earlier, the Prigozhin press service released a report that military personnel from the Ministry of Defense mined the routes through which Wagner fighters were supposed to leave Bakhmut. When they arrived for clearance, they came under fire from Ministry of Defense positions. According to a document released by the press service, the “Wagnerians” allegedly detained soldiers from the Ministry of Defense, among whom was Lieutenant-Colonel Vinivitin.
In his video, the Lieutenant Colonel commented on his “detention” as follows: “How was my capture: I walked around my units and forward orders, PMC officers blocked my way . There was no reason for that.
As a military officer, I was not going to endure this. As a result, Wagner’s employees were disarmed… Subsequently, I was captured, kept in the basement, laughed at in the way that any embittered Russian soldier would not laugh at a captured Armed Forces soldier Ukrainians.
I was beaten, not allowed to sleep, three times a night, they just dragged me out of the basement and tried to shoot me. The video of my interrogation is the result of pressure,” Lt. Col. Vinivitin said Thursday.
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