from orphan to join wagner
Medvedev was born in the Tomsk region of Siberia. He said that when he was 12, he was placed in an orphanage after the death of his mother and the disappearance of his father.
He said he was drafted into the Russian army in 2014 at the age of 18 and served with the 31st Airborne Brigade based in Ulyanovsk.
Medvedev declined to give further details, saying, “This was my first deployment to Donbass.”
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 when Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution toppled a pro-Russian president and Russia annexed Crimea, while Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass – consisting of Donetsk and Luhansk – sought to break away from Kyiv’s control. demanded.
Medvedev said that he had served several prison terms, including one for robbery, and that he had decided to join the Wagner Group in July 2022, when he was last released from prison.
Medvedev stated that he was not recruited directly out of prison, but decided to join as he realized he would be drafted into the regular Russian Armed Forces anyway.
He signed a four-month contract for a monthly salary of around 250,000 rubles ($3,575). That said, he entered Ukraine on 16 July and fought near Bakhmut.
“It was a mess. The streets of Artemovsk were littered with the bodies of our soldiers,” he said, taking the Russian place name for Bakhmut. “The loss was heavy. … I saw many friends die.”