“I hit my head and lost consciousness and came to this cellar,” says Nuzhin. “They told me I had to stand trial.” And these are his last words: Behind him, a man in camouflage smashes a sledgehammer at Nuzhin’s neck and head, causing Nuzhin to collapse to the floor. The executioner then delivers another blow to his head. The unverified video, titled “Hammer of Retribution,” was posted Saturday on the Gray Zone Telegram channel — an account linked to the Wagner mercenary group. The group, founded by Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been used as a private army acting on behalf of the Kremlin during its faltering invasion of Ukraine. Asked to comment on the gruesome execution clip, Prigozhin on Sunday praised his “excellent directorial work”. His comments, reported by the press service for his company Concord, also included: “This show shows that he did not find happiness in Ukraine, instead meeting rude but fair people. I think this movie is called Death of a Dog in a Dog. Prigozhin added: “I hope no animals were harmed during the filming.” After being arrested by Ukrainian forces in September, Nuzhin gave an interview to Ukrainian media in which he described being jailed in Russia in 1999 for murder after killing one man and wounding another in a “skirmish,” Meduza reports. He said he was sentenced to 24 years for the crime and has been serving the last few years in a penal colony in the Russian city of Ryazan. Nuzin claimed that Prigozhin visited the prison in July to offer prisoners the chance to join the Kremlin’s “special military operation” in exchange for a pardon. Nuzhin says he accepted the offer, but didn’t know he would be joining Team Wagner instead of the Russian military until a month later. He says the conscripted convicts were taken to a week-long camp in Luhansk, Ukraine, which ended on September 2. He claims he was arrested by Ukrainian forces just two days later. Nuzin said he and other prison recruits were simply used as “cannon fodder.” In the interview, he added that he had decided to surrender to Ukraine long before he was captured and that he hoped to join a Russian legion fighting for Kyiv. “It is Putin who attacked Ukraine,” Nuzin said. “And I have relatives who live here. My uncle lives in the Ivano-Frankivsk region and my sister in Lviv.” It is not clear how Nuzhin ended up back in Russian hands. “Nuzhin betrayed his people, he betrayed his comrades, he consciously betrayed,” Prigozhin – nicknamed “Putin’s chef” for his culinary services to the Russian president – said, according to Reuters. The mercenary leader has been sanctioned by the US and the EU for his role with Wagner, with the group’s paramilitaries linked to numerous atrocities around the world. Over the weekend, survivors of a Wagner Group raid in Mali accused Russian mercenaries of sexually assaulting a dozen women and girls in September.
