CNN –
Paul Whelan, the American who spent five and a half years unjustly detained in Russia, revealed on Sunday that he passed on to Western officials information he received from fellow prisoners who were fighting for Russia on the front lines in Ukraine.
“The prisoners from the camp who went to the front line, they had contacts. They would reach out to us,” Whelan said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” referring to the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Ireland — the four countries of which he is a citizen. I conveyed messages from them to the four governments.”
Whelan added that he and others were able to communicate with former prisoners via “burner” phones that they could obtain even while in the Russian labor camp in Mordovia.
“Through illegal cell phones,” Whelan said. “Yes, we had burner phones.”
Whelan added that the guards “turned a blind eye” in exchange for goods such as cigarettes.
“The Russian prison guard gets three or four hundred dollars a month. “Give him a pack of cigarettes and you can do anything you want,” Whelan added.
During his years in detention, consular officials from the four governments met regularly with Whelan to check on him and provide updates on efforts to secure his release.
Whelan said 450 prisoners from his camp went to fight in Ukraine as part of recruitment efforts by mercenary groups including the Wagner Group, which recruited tens of thousands of prisoners from prisons across Russia to support Russia’s brutal invasion. Whelan said his camp was primarily made up of young men from Central Asian countries such as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
“450 people came out of my camp. I knew them all. Some of them were dead. Some had missing arms and legs. They all got some kind of PTSD. They had a traumatic experience.” They were used on the front lines to walk through minefields. “Use them as cannon fodder. They will be sent in front of the patrols to try to repel the enemy’s fire. This is what Russia is doing with these people, all of whom are young. Putin is throwing a generation of his youth into Ukraine for nothing.”
Whelan, a former US Marine, was released earlier this year as part of a large-scale prisoner exchange between the US and Russia. A total of eight people were returned to the Kremlin in exchange for the release of 16 people held by Russia, including four Americans, in a historic exchange that was the result of years of complex behind-the-scenes negotiations in which the United States participated. Russia and Germany.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
