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Russian Mercenaries Used Live Prisoners to Practice Stabbing People in the Heart in Mali
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Russian mercenaries in Mali used live prisoners to practice killing people with knives, including stabbing them in the heart, while other captives were deliberately wounded and mutilated for tactical medicine training, according to a former Wagner fighter now held in Ukrainian captivity.
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The former mercenary described the alleged practices in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Karpenko published in September 2026. He said Russian instructors used at least three captured Africans for training exercises and that none survived.
The fighter said he signed a contract with Wagner in 2023 and traveled to Mali via Syria that September, remaining there until April 2024. According to his account, approximately 120 to 130 Wagner personnel traveled with him, with mercenaries receiving about $3,000 per month.
One prisoner, he said, was drugged before Russian personnel used him to demonstrate how to kill a person by stabbing them in the heart. “They showed us how to kill with a knife to the heart. They picked two people, those who were ready, and said: ‘Here, stab him in the heart,’” the former Wagner fighter said.
He also described Russian instructors deliberately inflicting severe injuries on other prisoners so mercenaries could practice treating battlefield wounds and stopping major bleeding. In one case, he said an explosive charge was attached to a prisoner’s leg and detonated before the group practiced treating the resulting injury.
“We gathered for medical training, and they brought in a captured terrorist. They strapped a TNT charge to his leg. They set it off, everyone moved away, and his leg, of course, was blown off,” he said.
According to the former Wagner fighter, the same prisoner was later deliberately shot near an artery in the armpit so the mercenaries could practice controlling another severe hemorrhage. The prisoner subsequently died, he said.
A third prisoner had his leg cut off with an axe before the mercenaries practiced applying a tourniquet, according to the fighter. “They were practicing bandaging on the third one’s leg, but they simply chopped his leg off. Yes, they tightened a tourniquet… Well, so that everything would be like in extreme situations, so that it would be realistic,” he said.
The former Wagner member said all three prisoners died during the exercises. His account could not be independently verified.
After returning to Russia, the fighter said he signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry in August 2025 and joined Russia’s 14th Separate Guards Special Purpose Brigade, a military intelligence special forces formation. He was later captured by Ukrainian forces while fighting against Ukraine.
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Wagner personnel have previously faced allegations of serious abuses during Russian operations in Africa. UN experts have documented allegations involving Wagner-linked personnel in the Central African Republic, including violence, intimidation, and other abuses against civilians.
Russia expanded Wagner’s operations across Africa before the death of the group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in 2023. Moscow subsequently moved to bring much of the organization’s overseas network under greater state control, while Russian military-linked personnel continued operating in Mali and other African countries.
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