A Russian oligarch and close confidant of the President Wladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, responded to an assassination video by a former mercenary who switched sides in September support Ukraine.

What happened: An unconfirmed video by Yevgeny Nuzhin, a former Wagner mercenarywho was executed in the head with a sledgehammer after admitting he switched sides to “fight the Russians” in September, is making the rounds on the internet.

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The video first appeared on the Gray Zone Telegram channel – one of several handles that Russian media said were linked to the Wagner group.

Prigozhin who founded the private military group Wagnerin comments released by his spokesperson ReutersShe said the video should be titled “A Dog Receives a Dog’s Death.”

“Nuzhin betrayed his people, betrayed his comrades, knowingly betrayed them,” Prigozhin said, adding, “Nushin was a traitor.”

The US and the European Union have sanctioned Prigozhin for his role in Wagner.

“Remember, it’s not just traitors who throw down their automatic weapons and go over to the enemy,” he said.

“Some traitors hide in offices and don’t think about their own people. Some of them fly their own business jets to countries that previously seemed neutral to us. They fly away in order not to get involved in today’s problems. They are traitors too,” he added.

Meanwhile the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of committing war crimes and said investigators had already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes.

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This story was originally published on November 14, 2022.