In a video circulating on social networks, we can see Igor Mangushev holding a human skull in his hand. He gives a chilling speech in what appears to be a nightclub: “We are alive and this guy is already dead. Let him burn in hell. He was unlucky. We will drink from his skull”he begins, before clarifying that peace with Ukraine is not possible: “We are not at war with people of flesh and blood. We are at war with the idea of Ukraine as an anti-Russian nation. There can be no peace. We must ‘de-Ukrainize’ Ukraine We must take back our lands”he says. “This is the tragedy of Ukrainian soldiers. It doesn’t matter how many we have to kill”he continues.
An individual in the crowd challenges him: “Are you sure it wasn’t a civilian?”
“No, we killed him ourselves”, assures Mangushev. According to the latter, the soldier was found near the Azovstal factory in Mariupol, the scene of violent clashes.
Alerted, the human rights ombudsman in the Ukrainian parliament, Dmytro Lubinets, quickly reported the images to the United Nations. “Through their propagandists, the Russians continue to dehumanize the Ukrainian people, justifying the massacres of civilians and the destruction of settlements”he complains.
Moreover, Igor Mangushev is not just any soldier. He is notably part of the terrible Wagner group in the pay of the Kremlin. He was also quoted in an article in the Russian magazine “Novoje Vremja” which won the 2014 European Press Prize. This paper reported on the atrocious actions of ENOT, a nationalist organization, in the Donbass. Mangushev was at the head of the troops sent there.
This 36-year-old soldier would also be the origin of the popular “Z” symbol used by the Russian armed forces, in particular on their vehicles in order to differentiate them from those of Ukraine. This is in any case what he had declared to the site “Meduza” last May.