On Tuesday, several international media reported, among others Sky Newsthat police had launched an intense hunt for a gunman who had shot at police in Russia.
The man was described as a “defector with an automatic weapon”, and allegedly opened fire on police near a customs office in the city of Novoshakhtinsk, not far from the border with Ukraine.
According to the Russian Interior Ministry, a police officer was killed.
Recruited for Wagner
After about a day on the run, the suspect was arrested by police on Wednesday. This was reported by the governor of the Rostov Oblast region, Vasily Golubev, on his Telegram account.
The Baza news agency says the arrested man is a deserter from the private military group Wagner. He is said to have been recruited into the group while he was serving a prison sentence.
Former American General Commanding Wagner Group
However, he is said to have been “at large” since 24 November. The cause is not known.
The Wagner group, an organization that does not exist on paper, is an organization made up of mercenaries.
For years it was not known who was behind the paramilitary organizationbut in 2022 oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin admitted be the founder of the group. He is considered one of Vladimir Putin’s closest associates.
Ex-convict
In late October, Prigozhin reportedly admitted that the group recruits prisoners from Russian prisons. According to reports, this also includes people with serious illnesses, such as HIV and hepatitis C.
Executed Mercenary: – Killed like an animal
The area’s 112 center wrote in Telegram on Tuesday that police were looking for a missing woman when a man dressed in camouflage suddenly appeared from the forest and started shooting.
Following the incident, residents of the city were asked to stay indoors, at the request of the authorities.
The carabinieri ascertained that the man was already in prison and served a sentence for theft and robbery. The man was identified as a Russian in his thirties. However, they did not comment on the information that he is a Wagner defector.
The person is charged with serious violence against a police officer and illegal possession of a firearm.
The injured policeman was said to have been shot in the hip region, according to Baza. The extent of the damage is not publicly known. The police are investigating the case.
“Top secret”
The Wagner founder has neither confirmed nor denied that the man now accused is a defector from the Wagner group, but he spoke about the case on Telegram:
– If he really was a Wagnerian warrior and committed a crime, it is necessary to investigate separately how this kind of incident, classified as “top secret”, fell into the hands of journalists, as well as how this person crossed the border into Russia, writes Prigozhin.
– He wants more mercenaries
Prigozhin points out that his main question related to the case is not whether one or the other person left the combat zone, as that person may have been injured, or become insane and disoriented.
– However, my main question is how did a Wagner soldier end up with weapons in hand on the territory of the Russian Federation? How did he cross the border? (…) he Is a PMC hunter or maybe a representative of a sabotage group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ?, he writes.
