Convicted murderer released from jail to fight for Putin’s Wagner thugs becomes second mercenary to be beaten to death with a sledgehammer after he was accused of ‘treason’ for surrendering to Ukraine
- Dmitry Yakushchenko, 44, was bludgeoned to death with the sledgehammer
- He was accused of ‘treason’ for defecting to Ukraine after arriving on frontline
- It comes after Wagner fighter Yevgeny Nuzhin was executed with sledgehammer
A convicted murderer who was released from prison to fight for Russia’s Wagner group has become the second mercenary to be brutally beaten to death with a sledgehammer after he was accused of deserting to Ukraine.
Dmitry Yakushchenko, 44, had his head taped to a rock with clingfilm before being bludgeoned to death with the sledgehammer in a harrowing ordeal that was filmed and published on Telegram.
Yakushchenko was accused of ‘treason’ for defecting to Ukraine after arriving on the frontline. He was later recaptured by his former Wagner colleagues and horrific video shows him being executed.
The 44-year-old is now the second Wagner fighter to be executed with a sledgehammer after convicted murderer Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, was killed by his countrymen in November last year.
Dmitry Yakushchenko, 44, had his head taped to a rock with clingfilm before being bludgeoned to death with the sledgehammer in a harrowing ordeal that was filmed and published online
Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close Putin henchman, has previously threatened to kill ‘traitors’ who leave the front line, and defended the murder of Nuzhin, as did Putin’s propagandists
Harrowing video shows Yakushchenko confessing to surrendering to Ukraine as his head was strapped tightly to the side of a rock with clingfilm – while a man with a sledgehammer stands behind him.
Yakushchenko, wearing military uniform, said he ‘realised this was not my war’ after he was sent to fight for Putin and said he had been hit in the head on the streets of Dnipro, central Ukraine, and woken up in the room strapped to a rock.
Yakushchenko added he was told he was going to be tried for desertion.
At this moment, the man standing behind him lifted the sledgehammer and hit Yakushchenko in the head, the sound of his skull cracking against the rock resounding through the dark room.
Yakushchenko is hit twice more – his body slumped on the ground after the sickening blows.
Reports in Russia say that Yakushchenko was a convicted murderer and robber who had been released from a 19 year jail sentence to fight in Putin’s war.
As he reached the frontlines with Wagner mercenaries, he surrendered to Ukraine.
But he had apparently been handed back to the notoriously brutal Wagner group in a prisoner swap when he was brutally executed.
Before he was executed, he told the camera: ‘I am Dmitry Yakushchenko, born in 1978, in Crimea.
‘I went to the front in the ranks of the Wagner PMC [private military company].
‘At the front, I realised this was not my war…
‘Today I was in the streets of Dnipro, where I received a blow to the head and lost consciousness.
‘I woke up in this room where I was told that I was going to be tried [for desertion],’ Yakushchenko said just seconds before he was brutally executed.
His murder echoes the execution of convicted murderer Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, who was also bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer (pictured moments before his death)
His murder echoes the execution of convicted murderer Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, who was also bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer.
He, too, had been handed back by the Ukrainians in an official PoW swap, only to be passed back to Wagner which then took the law in their own hands.
Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close Putin henchman, has previously threatened to kill ‘traitors’ who leave the front line, and defended the murder of Nuzhin, as did Putin’s propagandists.
Yakushchenko, from Crimea, was initially recorded by the Ukrainians explaining how he escaped after being put on the frontline.
‘I planned to find some way to escape,’ he said. ‘My fourth day started, I took my machine gun, some magazines, [and] a couple of grenades….
‘I crawled somewhere and lay down until the shooting stopped, drones were flying.’
‘I kept moving and my position turnout out to be on the Ukrainian side. If any Russians have a chance to leave, they better do so.’
Yakushchenko, from Crimea, was initially recorded by the Ukrainians explaining how he escaped after being put on the frontline
Yakushchenko said he hoped Crimea would return to Ukraine, he told his interrogators.
The Ukrainians included Yakushchenko in a major PoW swap earlier this month which also saw Russia hand back the bodies of British aid workers Chris Parry, 28, and colleague Andrew Bagshaw, 47, according to Cheka-OGPU Telegram channel.
The video of Yakushchenko’s execution was shared by Grey Zone Telegram channel, which is linked to Wagner.
Yakushchenko appears to have been convicted of murder in Crimea when it was still under Ukrainian control, prior to annexation by Putin in 2014.
He was then transferred to a jail in Engels in Russia.
It was from here he was recruited as part of the Russian scheme to free killers, rapists and other criminals to fight against Ukraine, offering them a pardon if they survive for six months.
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