Murder of Yevgeny Nuzhin
Yevgeny Anatolievich Nuzhin (1967 – November 2022) was a convicted Russian murderer who enlisted in Wagner Group during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. After defecting to the Ukrainian side he was extrajudicially murdered by the Wagner Group for alleged treason in Russia.
Life
Nuzhin was born in 1967.[1] As a young man, Nuzhin had served in the Ministry of Interior of the Russian Army. In 1999, he murdered a person and wounded another for which he was sent to prison for 24 years. In jail he married a woman named Olga Viktorovna[2] with whom he had two sons.[3][4] He was sentenced to an additional four years in prison for an attempted escape.[3] He spent the first four years of his sentence in special rigor camps in northern Ural. Later, he was sent to IK3 prison in Razan. After three years he was sent to Vladimir after which he returned to Razan.[2] While in prison, he maintained social media accounts. He expressed support for the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Ukraine.[3]
In July 2022,[2] he joined Wagner Group after Yevgeny Prigozhin visited his prison in Razan region. After training for seven days, on 25 August he was sent to the Luhansk region and on 2 September he arrived on the frontline.[2] On 4 September, he decided to surrender.[1][5] Following his surrender, he gave an interview to Ukrainian journalist Yuri Butusov, stating that he had only joined the Wagner Group to get out of prison and quickly surrender to Ukraine. He argued that he was opposed to the Russian invasion, and expressed his hope to stay in Ukraine[6] and the wish to fight for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.[6][1][5]
On 11 November 2022, while walking in the streets of Kyiv, he was allegedly kidnapped, although it is possible Wagner forced him to tell this to warn others.[5][3] According to Human rights group Gulagu.net, he was either recaptured or passed back to the Russian Army which handed him over to Wagner Security Service. According to the Telegram channel "Cheka-OGPU", Nuzhin was returned on 11 November in a 45 to 45 prisoner exchange.[3] On 12 November, a Wagner Group–affiliated Telegram channel released a video titled The hammer of revenge[5] showing his "execution for treachery" using a sledgehammer. Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of Wagner Group claimed responsibility for his killing saying that it was "dog's death for the dog."[5][7]
Gulag.net called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate how Nuzhin ended up in Wagner Group captivity despite having surrendered to Ukraine.[6] Nuzhin's relatives in Russia blamed Ukraine for allowing him to be killed, though his sons also stated that the Russian Federal Security Service was "looking for them" to ensure their silence on the matter.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Yevgeny_Nuzhin
