1/ The Russian prisoners' rights group Gulagu Net reports that a convict named Viktor Anatolyevich Sevalnev has been taken from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for battle wounds, to be shot after the unit he was commanding retreated from the front line. β¬οΈ
2/ According to Gulagu, the 43-year-old Sevalnev had previously been imprisoned in penal colony No. 3 (IK-3) in the Kaluga Region, where he was serving four years for assault. Earlier this year, he was severely beaten by "kapo activists" (prisoners working for the authorities).
3/ "On the night of 3β4 October, Sevalnev and more than 100 other convicts were escorted from the colony to a "shakedown camp" near Luhansk, where the convicts were issued military uniforms and weapons and told that by decision of Commander-in-Chief Putin, they were being sentβ¦
4/ β¦to the so-called "military unit 08807" [the 7th Separate βChistyakovskayaβ Motor Rifle Brigade] of the so-called "Luhansk People's Republic".
5/ In fact, Sevalnev decided to escape from the torture zone where he was brutally beaten, signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence, agreed to participate in the war, and also gave a nondisclosure acknowledgement..."
6/ According to Sevalnev's wife, he had previous combat experience from serving in Chechnya. Perhaps because of this, he was sent to serve with a unit of the LPR People's Militia (part of the LPR's regular forces) rather than a Wagner unit.
7/ Gulagu reports that his unit was sent to storm an industrial plant somewhere in the east of Ukraine (location unknown, presumably in Donetsk oblast, but perhaps it can be geolocated from this photo?).
8/ Sevalnev says that as many as 5,000 Russians were killed in Ukraine's successful recapture of Lyman in September-October 2022. He himself was wounded in an encirclement.
9/ "Viktor was sent to fight in the 7th company, the company commander was killed and after that Sevalnev himself was made commander of this unit.
10/ During the fighting Sevalnev was repeatedly injured and shell-shocked, but revenge forced him to return to duty β his own son died in one of the battles (he was also transferred from IK-3 to the occupied territories of Ukraine and involved in complicity in the war).
11/ The Russian Federation/"LDPR" units suffered huge losses, about 50% of the fighters were killed, and the second part of the unit... fled.
12/ According to information from Sevalnev himself, representatives of the special services came to pick him up from the hospital in order to take him to the headquarters and shoot him there."
13/ Gulagu acknowledges that Savalnev is not a sympathetic figure β "Unfortunately, he took part in the war as a mercenary, he became an illegal combatant and even the commander of one of the secret units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,β¦
14/ β¦ received injuries and money, killed [people] and participated in the vile military aggression against Ukraine, despite the fact that in IK-3 he was bullied and beaten by the Russians, not the Ukrainians."
15/ However, Gulagu points out that "no one has the right to shoot prisoners" β Russia has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 1996 β and denounces what it calls "Prigozhinism".
16/ It calls on Wagner boss Yegeny Prigozhin, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and President Putin to stop Savalnev's apparently imminent execution.
17/ Savalnev himself reportedly says that he regrets taking part in a terrible war where people are being killed, he would like to return to the penal colony and says that prisoners should not take part in the conflict.
18/ Gulagu's founder Vladimir Osechkin has published a lengthy YouTube video documenting Savalnev's story and calling on the Russian government to act. It's not clear when the execution is scheduled. /end
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