Dmitry Yakuschenko, a 44-year-old Crimean mercenary, was allegedly executed by members of the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary organisation, in Ukraine. An unverified video of the incident was published on the Grey Zone Telegram channel, which is linked to the Wagner Group. The video shows Yakuschenko with his head taped to a number of blocks and a figure behind him holding a sledgehammer.
Reports suggest that Yakuschenko was serving a 19-year sentence for murder and robbery when he was recruited to join Wagner Group as part of a scheme that would offer him a pardon if he survived for six months. In the video, Yakuschenko explains how he fled from the frontline after four days of service and ended up on the Ukrainian side. He also expressed his hope that Crimea would one day return to Ukraine and urged more Russians to defect.
Yakuschenko was then handed back to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange and the video shows him being interviewed again. The video then cuts to Yakuschenko giving his name and age before the figure behind him swings the sledgehammer towards his head, however the violence is blurred out. A loud noise can be heard and Yakuschenko collapses to the floor, before the sledgehammer is swung at him twice more.
The execution mirrors that of Yevgenny Nuzhin, another mercenary for the Wagner Group who was accused of desertion. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the boss of the paramilitary organisation and a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, later claimed to have sent a sledgehammer smeared with fake blood to the European Parliament.
