15 January 2023 , 15:29
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Russia is publicly executing troops who defy Vladimir Putin's orders in Ukraine.
Reports from escaped troops have confessed to Ukrainian forces about executions which they say are carried out publicly.
Prisoners of Russia's controversial Wagner group, which has murderers, rapists and drug dealers on its front line, have come clean to their Ukrainian captors.
And they say they have witnesses public executions by their their own leaders.
The Daily Star reports a captured soldier who said: "Those who disobey are eliminated – and it’s done publicly,"
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The Wagner group, run by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, uses former prison inmates to fight on the front line, and was dubbed 'Putin's most dangerous secret weapon in the Ukraine invasion.
The rubble of a destroyed residential building after a Russian missile strike in Dnipro, Ukraine (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Prigozhin has been praised by Russian state-controlled media.
But the leader has openly criticised his political opponents for failures in the fight and escribed the private army as an example of core Russian values.
Prisoners have been described as the Kremlin’s saviours and Russia's media is gushing in praise for Yevgeniy Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary group.
But the group has not always been the fighters Kremlin leaders hoped.
Russia is said to be 'publicly executing' its own fighters (@miladvisor/Twitter)The former crooks, now on the frontline, are said to have been hit by heavy casualties among their own ranks when they attacked mining town Soledar
The former inmate reportedly added: "There are squadrons of liquidators... shelling began.
"One of the prisoners laid down and didn’t cover his own men.
"The shelling stopped, he went back, and the boss shouted: 'Why didn’t you go forward?'
Russian soldiers captured by Ukraine say defying Vladimir Putin can result in public execution (SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)"And they killed him. The boss is killed if his team deserts."
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The Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) reported that some ex-cons have even appealed to human rights organisations to be returned to prison rather than face execution by their own leaders.
Russian propaganda analyst Kseniya Kirillova wrote: "Losses in so-called meat grinder assaults are said to be enormous, especially among convicts whose role is to reveal Ukrainian positions by advancing to draw their fire."
The Mirror also reported Russian troops are waging a ferocious house-to-house battle in eastern Ukraine - as President Vladimir Putin slapped a major reshuffle on top generals.
The latest Kremlin changes at the top of its military could signal a new and terrifying escalation as Russia's military leaders compete for better results in Ukraine.
Desperate Putin has reined in both a Chechen warlord and a notorious mercenary leader by appointing General Valery Gerasimov as head of Russian forces.
At the same time as promoting Gerasimov above them he has also demoted so-called General “Armageddon” Sergei Surovikin to become the military number two.