Russian Wagner mercenaries seized in Ukraine on the "lies" that lured them, and threats that kept...

Wagner definitely not a class act

LTC Eugene Chu
..."At the vanguard of the battle have been scores of men from the Kremlin-backed paramilitary Wagner Group — a force bolstered by mercenaries recruited from Russia's notorious penal colonies.

CBS News met two of these guns-for-hire, men who were seized in the east and are now being held by Ukraine's military intelligence.

Sergei was almost halfway into a 19-year sentence for murder at a penal colony when Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin visited prisons and made his pitch to convicts: Serve six months on the front line for Russia, and then you can go free.

"I needed to leave the prison one way or another," he told CBS News. "Ten years is a long time."

So, he made the deal with the devil — front line fighting in exchange for freedom, and cash.

Barely aware there was a war raging in Ukraine, Sergei was told he'd be fighting foreigners there.

"American mercenaries, Polish mercenaries, French… we were told they were Nazis," he said.

Vlad, the other Wagner man, had already served two years of his three-year sentence for assault, but the promise of early release, a record wiped clean, and a salary of $3,500 proved too tempting.

After just two weeks of training, he said he was sent up against Ukrainian tanks with nothing more than a machine gun.

Vlad, a Russian mercenary who was seized by Ukrainian forces while fighting for the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group, is seen as he speaks with CBS News in Bakhmut, Ukraine, in February 2023. "...

Thank you so much for sharing.