Photo: ura.news
A criminal court in the city of Angren, Tashkent Region, has sentenced a citizen of Uzbekistan to five years of restricted freedom for fighting in Ukraine as part of the Russian private military company Wagner. According to Gazeta.uz, which cited court documents, the man was found guilty under Uzbekistan’s criminal statute on mercenarism.
The defendant, identified as U.M., was born in 2000. In the summer of 2021, he left for Russia in search of work. He testified that the Angren employment center had offered him a warehouse job with a postal service in Moscow Oblast. He accepted and traveled to Russia with a group of 15–20 other migrant workers.
After obtaining a work permit, U.M. briefly worked at the warehouse before being told the position was no longer available. He was then offered a new job in Samara Oblast. There, a Tajik national named Farid allegedly asked him to deliver a package. En route, U.M. was detained by police, who discovered heroin inside. As the police failed to identify the recipient, U.M. was charged with drug trafficking.
According to the defendant, an investigator offered to deport him back to Uzbekistan for 500,000 rubles (over $6,000). U.M. said he could not pay the bribe and was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison.
In September 2022, Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin visited the penal colony where U.M. was incarcerated. Prigozhin assembled the inmates—excluding those convicted of terrorism or rape—and offered them contracts to fight in Ukraine in exchange for 150,000 rubles (about $2,000) per month, Russian citizenship, and a pardon after six months of service. Over 100 prisoners agreed, but U.M. initially declined.
Later, Wagner recruiters returned and allegedly divided the prisoners into Russian nationals and Central Asians. The recruiters offered both groups the same choice, but when 10–15 migrants refused, three were reportedly executed on the spot. U.M. said that all remaining migrants then agreed to serve in Wagner’s ranks.
He and others were taken to Rostov-on-Don, where they signed contracts and were sent to a training camp near Donetsk. U.M. confessed to fighting for four months before being wounded in the leg in early February 2023. He claimed prisoners were threatened with execution if they retreated from battle.
After a month of treatment, he was returned to the front lines. Toward the end of his service, his injury worsened, and he was hospitalized again and then sent back to Rostov. In April 2023, Wagner paid him 500,000 rubles and awarded him medals “For Courage,” “For Injury,” and “For the Capture of Soledar,” along with documentation to support his application for Russian citizenship.
U.M. received a Russian passport in September and began working in a confectionery workshop. Fearing he might be redeployed to Ukraine, he decided to return to Uzbekistan. He came back to Angren in fall 2024, where he was later charged with mercenarism.
During the trial, the defendant expressed remorse and asked the court to consider mitigating circumstances: he is the sole breadwinner in his family and his father is a first-degree disabled person. The court sentenced the former Wagner fighter to a non-custodial punishment.
