Russian officer captured, accused of firing on mercenaries

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group released a video Sunday showing what it claimed to be a captured high-ranking Russian officer who’s been accused of firing on the private army’s vehicle during the battle for Bakhmut.

In the footage, the captive, identified as Lieutenant Colonel Roman Venevitin, commander of the Russian Ground Forces’ 72nd Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade, is seen with an injury to his nose during an interrogation.

Venevitin admits that he and a group of 10 or 12 regular soldiers fired at a Wagner vehicle and “disarmed” the group’s rapid response unit.

“I acted in a state of alcoholic intoxication out of personal animosity,” Venevitin says.

Asked why he dislikes the Wagner Group, a somber-looking Venevitin replied that he “doesn’t know.”

“How can your actions be characterized?” the interrogator asks. Venevitin replies with a sigh: “Guilty.”

A few hours before the Wagner Group’s press service published the interrogation video on its Telegram channel, the private army’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, released a document describing how the Russian regular army had allegedly mined the roads that Wagner fighters were using to pull out of Bakhmut.

The letter, dated May 17, reportedly states that when Wagner sappers were sent to clear the mines from the routes used by the private army fighters, they were shot at by a group of Russian soldiers led by an officer in a “state of alcoholic intoxication.”

When a journalist asked Prigozhin to provide proof of the alleged friendly-fire attack, the Wagner chief released the video of Venevitin’s questioning, which he called “the cherry on the cake.”

Although they are ostensibly fighting on the same side, Wagner mercenaries and Russian regulars have been at loggerheads in Ukraine.

Anton Gerashchenko, an aide to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, took obvious delight in the internecine conflict unfolding on the Russian side, tweeting in response to the video: “It seems that the feud between PMC Wagner and Russian regular army got on the next level.”

Prigozhin has been vocal in his criticism of Russia’s top military brass, accusing Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov in foul-mouthed rants of depriving his forces of ammunition as they were leading the bloody fight to capture Bakhmut.

Last month, Prigozhin claimed that his units finally took full control of the bombed-out city, which they then handed over to the regular forces. 

Speaking to reporters at a training camp last week, Prigozhin, 62, warned that his soldiers would continue fighting in Ukraine only if they won’t have to depend on the “clowns who turn people into meat.”

A day earlier, the former catering mogul-turned-mercenary chief asked Russian prosecutors to investigate whether senior defense officials had committed any “crime” related to the war in Ukraine.

Prigozhin continued lashing out at the Russian military leadership Monday, claiming that inept regular forces had already lost control of some of its positions around Bakhmut, which he slammed as a “disgrace.”

The Wagner founder, who has frequently been seen on the front lines standing shoulder to shoulder with his fighters, called on Shoigu and Gerasimov to travel to the war zone and rally their troops.

“You can do it! And if you can’t, you’ll die heroes,” he said.