A Russian mercenary known for butchering prisoners of war and civilians in the Donbass has been killed in Ukraine.
Vladimir Andonov, 44, a sabotage and reconnaissance specialist in the ranks of the mysterious Wagner Group, was shot by a sniper near Kharkiv during a night-time mission on June 5, Russian media reported.
Andonov was known to Russians as ‘Vakha’ or ‘the volunteer from Buryatia’ after the region he was from, while to Ukrainians he was ‘the executioner’ owing to massacres he helped carry out during Russia’s initial invasion of the country in 2014.
He was part of a battalion that ‘liberated’, the Donbas village of Logvinovo in early 2015, where three Ukrainian POWs were later found killed in a shallow grave including one who had been shot through the eye.
Andonov had bragged about the mission to Russian media, revealing how his squad had been commanded to ‘kill all the forces of the enemy,’ and that ‘there were no survivors’ of the attack.
Zhambal-Zhamso Zhanaev, the head of the territory where Andonov lived, confirmed his death to Russian newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets.
Andonov’s body, along with that of another soldier murdered alongside him, is currently being returned from the front to his home region for burial, according to Zhanaev.
According to prior interviews with Russian media, Andonov is thought to leave behind a wife and at least two daughters.
The soldier, who was born in 1978 in Russia’s far east’s Trans-Baikal Territory, served in the regular Russian military from 1997 to 2005, when he traveled to Ulan-Ude and enrolled in a teaching college.
But, before joining a call for volunteers to go to Ukraine and join the conflict in 2014, he dropped out of school before finishing his degree and took a job in trade.
Andonov was enlisted into the Olkhon special forces company operating in the Donbas in early 2015, and fought in the Battle of Debaltseve, one of the final significant clashes of the original conflict.
He appeared in a video shot in the area at the time, which became one of the first pieces of evidence that Buryatia volunteers were in Ukraine.
Andonov gave an interview in 2015 to the Peacemaker website, which tracks Russian soldiers operating in Ukraine, in which he discussed a mission he was sent on with a ten-man unit to ‘liberate’ the town of Logvinovo, near Debaltseve in Donbas, during one of the final battles of the 2014 war.
He recalls mounting a surprise nighttime attack and taking the settlement before ‘we received an order to destroy all of the enemy’s manpower,’ according to the interview.
‘There were no survivors among the “dills,”‘ he added, a derogatory term for pro-Western Ukrainians.
Amnesty International released a report shortly after the conflict that recounted the killings of Oleksandr Berdes, Vasiliy Demchuk, and Pavlo Plotsinskiy, three Ukrainian troops who were seized by Russia and later discovered dead in a shallow grave near the village.
Photos and video compiled by Ukrainian website Censor show the three soldiers alive and detained by Russian forces before their bodies were discovered, according to the report.
One photo shows the trio in the back of a truck, one of whom had obvious face injuries that could have been caused by torture.
Andonov stayed on the frontlines in Ukraine until the full-scale fighting ended in 2015 with the signing of the Minsk Agreements, before returning to his home region in 2017.
He vanished at the end of that year, having destroyed all traces of himself online, and was supposed to be fighting as part of Wagner forces deployed to Syria and Libya over the next several years.
Andonov was among the soldiers that shot his family dead after capturing their home, according to a witness of a gun slaughter in the Libyan town of Espia, who told the BBC in August last year.
Wagner mercenaries have a bloodlusty reputation for fighting wars that Russia’s regular military can’t, sometimes resulting in massacres, torture, and indiscriminate deaths.
Thousands of mercenaries are estimated to be deployed to warzones in South America, Africa, and the Middle East, often from the ranks of the regular army.
When fighting in Ukraine resumed in February this year as a result of Putin’s invasion order, Andonov was reassigned to the front lines.
It’s unknown where he was fighting when he was killed on Sunday near the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Andonov was slain as Ukraine began a new counter-offensive in the area, driving Russian soldiers closer to their own border.
The notorious Wagner Group, often known as ‘Putin’s private army,’ has been implicated in a slew of rapes, robberies, killings, and war crimes around the world.
The mysterious squad, widely thought to be at Putin’s beck and call, claims no formal allegiance, allowing it to operate in areas where Russia’s regular military cannot, and using methods that even Moscow’s soldiers are banned to use.
Early in the Ukraine war, Wagner is alleged to have been entrusted with assassinating Volodymyr Zelensky and other key Ukrainian officials, including the Klitschko brothers. It may also be used in South America, Africa, and the Middle East, according to reports.
Wagner was accused by the EU in December of committing “severe human rights violations in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Sudan, and Mozambique.”
The force has already been significantly involved in arming pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine with weaponry, special operations personnel, and military training.
The army-for-hire is said to be run by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of the Kremlin known as “Putin’s chef.”
Wagner’s precise beginnings are unknown, but it first gained widespread notoriety in 2014 when fighting in Donbas during Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine.
It started out as a small group of a few hundred Russian army veterans. They were entrusted with assassinating Donbas officials who were generally favorable to Russia but had refused to obey Kremlin orders.
According to security analysts, these assassinations were carried out by Ukrainian soldiers in order to incite animosity towards Kyiv.
Dmitry Utkin, a shaven-headed former Spetsnaz lieutenant colonel who called the squad after his special forces code name, is the unit’s founder and leader.
Utkin is considered a neo-Nazi, with one Russian media describing him as having “an admiration of the Third Reich’s aesthetic.”
In Russia, mercenaries are banned, but Putin utilized Wagner to destroy Syrian rebels and even gave Utkin a medal for his efforts.
In 2020, the investigative news site Bellingcat discovered documents showing Wagner’s alleged boss, Prigozhin, had made 99 phone calls to Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff in eight months.
In 2020, the investigative news site Bellingcat discovered documents showing Wagner’s alleged boss, Prigozhin, had made 99 phone calls to Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff in eight months.
The Wagner Group, on the other hand, eventually grew so hazardous that the Russian government stopped to pay them.
As a result, Putin appointed oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin as the group’s leader.
Wagner Group’s ties to the Kremlin are undeniable, according to Western analysts. Putin has been seen with Wagner troops, including lieutenant colonel Utkin, at a Kremlin ceremony.
The Kremlin denied having any control over Wagner once more, claiming that Prigozhin solely offers catering services to the Russian government.
Wagner Group has fought across Africa, including Syria, Libya, Mozambique, and the Central African Republic, with observers noticing a direct link between their actions and Kremlin strategic goals.
A Syrian army deserter was abused by Wagner employees in 2017. Shocking video showed them breaking his knees with a sledgehammer, crushing his chest, then cutting off his hands, head, and burning his body on fire.
Stanislav D, a soldier believed to have been employed by Wagner in the country to assist prop up its Kremlin-backed ruler, Bashar Assad, was identified as the one who videotaped the torture and beheading in 2019.
The BBC got a Samsung tablet belonging to a Wagner fighter in Libya, which indicated the outfit had been planting unregistered mines in civilian areas, which was a war crime.
A’shopping list’ of weaponry and military equipment was also discovered, including four tanks, hundreds of Kalashnikov rifles, and a cutting-edge radar system.
Some of the equipment, according to a military analyst, could only have originated from the Kremlin.
There were also shocking revelations regarding Wagner warriors’ behavior, with one former member openly admitting to killing detainees because ‘no one wanted an additional mouth to feed.’
Meanwhile, a Libyan farmer revealed how he pretended to be dead while his relatives were being murdered all around him.
French President Emmanuel Macron cited Wagner’s appearance in Mali as one of the reasons for his decision to withdraw 2,400 troops from the country, where they had been fighting jihadists.
Mr. Macron suspected that the mercenaries had reached an agreement with Mali’s ruling junta.
‘Wagner is arriving in Mali with predatory intentions, but why?’ he claimed.
‘Because the junta, which came to power after two coups, considers them to be the best allies they can find in order to protect their power, not to fight terrorism.’
President Faustin-Archange Touadéra welcomed Wagner fighters into the Central African Republic (CAR) to help him fight rebels.
Both the UN and France claimed responsibility for raping and robbing unarmed civilians in the country’s rural areas during the campaign.
During the year from July 2020, the UN documented more than 500 events in the country, including sexual violence, extrajudicial murders, and torture.
Although inspectors confirmed that rebels were responsible for part of the atrocities, CAR’s Justice Minister Arnaud Abazene admitted for the first time that ‘Russian instructors’ were responsible for some of the abuses.
According to AFP, at than 50 individuals were killed, some in’summary executions.’
Three Russian journalists who were covering Wagner’s activities in CAR were ambushed and killed in 2018. Another Russian journalist working on the case ‘fell’ from his fifth-floor apartment.
Wagner has also participated in anti-ISIS operations in Syria and Mozambique.
ISIS-affiliated extremists killed seven mercenaries in Mozambique, including four who were shot and then decapitated.
According to military officials, both attacks were ambushes in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado state.
According to the New York Times, between 2,000 and 4,000 Wagner Group mercenaries landed in Ukraine in January with various goals.
‘They are incredibly effective because they are hard to pin down,’ said General Sir Richard Barrons, a former commander of Joint Forces Command.
‘They can emerge from the shadows, do atrocities, and then vanish, leaving no trace of who was responsible.’ They are plausible to deny since they are not directly tied to the Russian government.’
According to sources, the militia was informed on Putin’s plans against Ukraine in December, well before the Russian army.
Boris Johnson today urged NATO to be “harder” on Russia in order to “speed up” the end of the war as he presented a slew of new measures, including the Wagner Group.
The Wagner Group is one of the targets of the current round of sanctions, which were announced as the Prime Minister arrived in Brussels for meetings with the military alliance.
According to reports, the infamous mercenaries were entrusted with assassinating Ukrainian politicians Volodymyr Zelensky and others.
The new sanctions target billionaire oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler, Tinkoff bank founder Oleg Tinkov, Herman Gref, and Polina Kovaleva, alleged stepdaughter of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Galina Danilchenko, Russia’s’mayor’ of Melitopol, is also the first individual in Ukraine to be sanctioned for ‘operation with Russian forces.’
According to the Foreign Office, six more banks have been sanctioned.
‘We’ve got to step up,’ Mr Johnson said as he arrived in Brussels. We need to step up our assistance.
‘We need to tighten the economic noose around Putin by penalizing more people today, as we are doing with the Wagner Group, and looking into what we can do to prevent Putin from accessing his gold reserves, as well as doing more to assist the Ukrainians in their defense.’
‘We’re transitioning from a resistance-supporting program to assisting the Ukrainian defense of their homeland.’
Mr Johnson is urging countries like Germany and France to step up their reaction, saying that rising nuclear threats from Moscow must not ‘divert’ the military alliance.
He said Russia shouldn’t be allowed to use its gold reserves to prop up its economy, and he called a bid to host the 2028 Euro football tournament “beyond parody.”
Ahead of the NATO conference, which will be attended by Joe Biden, Prime Minister David Cameron said that the UK will provide Ukraine with 6,000 additional missiles and £25 million to help it fight the Russian invasion.
According to reports, the unit is Putin’s personal murder squad, but it is far enough away to give Putin plausible deniability.
Other claimed assassination targets include Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak.
The whole Ukrainian cabinet, mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir – both boxing champions who have become legendary characters on the front lines of the capital – were reportedly issued a 24-person ‘kill list’ by mercenaries.
The attack was thwarted after the plans reached the Ukrainian government’s higher echelons on March 5, causing Kyiv to announce a 36-hour ‘hard’ curfew, ordering everyone to stay indoors so military could scan the streets for Russian saboteurs.
Since Russian troops launched a violent invasion of Ukraine on February 24, more than a dozen attempts to murder Mr Zelensky are believed to have been made.
‘Vladimir Putin is manifestly determined to double down on his path of violence and aggression, extremely cruel in his treatment of the Ukrainian people,’ Mr Johnson said this morning.
‘We have to step up, boost our assistance, and tighten the economic vice around Putin, penalizing more people now than we are.’
‘We’re looking at what we can do to prevent Putin from using his gold reserves, as well as doing more to assist the Ukrainians in their defense.’
‘These oligarchs, businesses, and hired thugs are culpable in the death of innocent citizens, and it is just that they pay the price,’ Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who is also attending the NATO conference, said in a statement.
‘Putin should have no illusions: we are united with our friends and will continue to tighten the screws on Russia’s economy in order to assure his failure in Ukraine.’ There will be no pause in the action.’
All sanctioned individuals will have their UK assets frozen and face travel bans.
According to the Foreign Office, the sanctioned institutions’ entire global asset value is £500 billion, while the oligarchs and family members targeted are worth more than £150 billion.