Ex-Wagner Group member wants to testify about war crimes committed in Ukraine

This article was originally published in English

Dutch news program EenVandaag reported on Monday that Igor Salikov, 60, had entered the Netherlands by plane.

The latter asserts thathe was in eastern Ukraine in 2014 when conflict broke out there, and again in 2022 when Russia launched the ongoing invasion. He reportedly requested political asylum but could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

“I know where the orders came from” he told EenVandaag via video link, claims that could not be independently verified.

Information about the Russian chain of command could be crucial in building other cases against high-ranking Russians involved in the war.

The court prosecutor has not yet confirmed these statements.

Igor Salikov claims to have served as an officer in the Wagner groupthe now-disbanded military company that played a leading role in the invasion of Russia.

Led by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s mercenaries staged a brief mutiny in June, marching on Moscow with armed troops. Yevgeny Prigozhin is dead in a plane crash 2 months later.

Igor Salikov’s arrival in The Hague, where the ICC is based, comes several months after the Court issued an international arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him in March of being responsible for the kidnapping of children in Ukraine. A Kremlin spokesperson then denied these allegations.

Igor Salikov also claims to have information on the explosion of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.

All 298 passengers and crew were killed when the plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 by a Russian missile system. In November 2022, a Dutch court condemned two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian rebel for their role in the destruction of the plane which linked Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

In February, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) investigating the attack said it had discovered “strong indications” whereby Vladimir Putin approved the supply of heavy anti-aircraft weapons to the Ukrainian separatists who shot down the plane.

However, the team added that it did not have enough evidence to prosecute the Russian president or other suspects and suspended its eight-and-a-half-year investigation.

Although the active investigation into the Boeing 777 explosion was halted in February, “our door remains open to Russian witnesses from the inside. Our team remains engaged in the investigation into Flight MH17“, reads the team’s statement.