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Court in Uzbekistan Jails Man Who Fought With Wagner in Ukraine
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![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
A court in Uzbekistan has sentenced a 25-year-old citizen to five years in prison for joining Russia’s war against Ukraine. The man was found guilty of mercenarism, according to Gazeta.uz.
The defendant, born in 2000 and identified by the initials U.M., initially traveled to Russia in July 2021 for work. Later that year, he was arrested after police discovered heroin in a package he had been asked to deliver. In March 2022, he was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for drug trafficking.
While serving time in a penal colony in Russia’s Samara region, U.M. joined the Wagner Group in November 2022. He stated that Central Asian prisoners were separated during recruitment, and three who refused to join were publicly executed. Roughly 200 inmates were reportedly coerced into signing contracts.
U.M. underwent military training in occupied Donetsk Oblast before being deployed to the front, where he fought for approximately four months. He was wounded in the leg in February 2023 and hospitalized.
According to his testimony, retreating soldiers faced execution, and speaking Uzbek in hospitals was prohibited, with violations punished as “espionage.” The remains of deceased fighters were only buried if identification tags were present.
For his combat role, U.M. was granted early release in Russia, received citizenship, a monetary reward of 500,000 rubles, and was awarded medals including “For Courage” and “For the Capture of Soledar.”
After returning to civilian life in Russia, he learned that some Wagner veterans were being forcibly sent back to the front. In October 2024, he returned to Uzbekistan, where he was promptly detained by authorities.
Earlier, a 47-year-old Bulgarian citizen Orlin Roussev residing in the United Kingdom, was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit espionage.
The verdict was handed down by a London court following an investigation into suspected surveillance activities connected to Russian intelligence operations.
