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According to media estimates, the Russian soldiers and mercenaries of paramilitary groups who returned from the war in Ukraine committed at least 20 crimes in which 27 people died; most of these crimes were blamed on former fighters of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC).
The village of Derevyannoe in Karelia, northwest Russia, has a well-kept feel to it. Apple trees heavy with fruit and tidy vegetable gardens, boats on trailers ready for sailing in the nearby lake and wood stacked up high for winter.
The village of Derevyannoe in Karelia, northwest Russia, has a well-kept feel to it. Apple trees heavy with fruit and tidy vegetable gardens, boats on trailers ready for sailing in the nearby lake and wood stacked up high for winter.
Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images and Courtesy of Alexander TeploukhovMonths after returning home to Russia from the frontline in Ukraine, he can’t escape the explosions, the violence and the terror. They echo through his head. Private Alexander Teploukhov has seen more carnage and brutality than any man should endure, some he witnessed firsthand, some he caused himself.In episodes he calls “memory holes,” the 52-year-old is transported back to the Avdiivka combat z
Igor Sofonov, who was recruited to fight in Ukraine from a Russian penal colony where he was serving a sentence on drug charges, returned to civilian life this spring after he was pardoned as part of a deal with the Russian military.