A former commander of a mercenary unit of Wagner who fled to Norway has been arrested by the police there. Norwegian police said on Monday that they are investigating whether a court decision should be made on Andrei Medvedev’s internment.
Medvedev’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment. Russian human rights organization Gulagu.net says Medvedev told them in a phone call that he should be deported. In this case, he must take into account “brutal murder” in Russia, the organization explains.
Crossed border with Norway illegally
Medvedev illegally crossed the Russian-Norwegian border in mid-January, turned himself in to the police and applied for asylum in Norway. According to him, he commanded a combat unit in Ukraine and witnessed executions and punishments of mercenaries who refused to fight or wanted to leave the corps.
Meanwhile, the head of the infamous Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, thanked his fighters for their efforts in the battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar. In a video clip distributed Monday, which shows Prigozchin in front of a group of mercenaries in the tail of a transport plane, he recalls his past months in the war.
“We have now had half a year of war, as neither your grandfathers nor great-grandfathers experienced,” said Prigozhin. Compared to the battles for Soledar, the Red Army’s 1942 battle for Stalingrad against the German Wehrmacht was “more like a holiday”.
Heavy casualties for Wagner troops
During weeks of bitter fighting for the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, mercenaries from Wagner’s forces spearheaded the Russian attacks. The mercenaries suffered the heaviest losses in capturing the city.
Prigozhin, a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has recruited thousands of prisoners to serve in Russia in Ukraine.
Source: Krone
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