Wagner PMC 'kidnapped' boy from university, sent him to combat in Ukraine: Kazakh family

Head of Kremlin-backed Wagner private military group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, recently announced his plans to recruit about 30,000 new soldiers by mid-May ahead of the planned Ukrainian counteroffensive before May 15. A Kazakh family is now claiming that their 23-year-old son, a university student, was "kidnapped" by Russian mercenaries and forced into combat in Ukraine. De-facto detachment of the Russian Ministry of Defense Wagner which boasts a vast presence in Syria, the Middle East and Africa, has recruits that do not hold Russian national passports.

Family members of the fourth-year student Margulan Bekenov, who was enrolled in Tomsk State University in western Siberia, received a discreet message from the boy's phone that read: “I am alive and well. Can’t call," according to RFE/RL. The mother, identified as Almira Bekenova, is now alleging that her son was abducted by the representatives of Russia's notorious Wagner mercenary group in Tomsk and has been conscripted as a war soldier. She claims that her son neither signed a contract to enroll in Wagner whose fighters are waging battles in eastern Ukraine, nor had he changed his citizenship.

"He [Margulan Bekenov] was forcibly taken to a training camp in southwestern Russia, even though he never signed a contract with the ostensibly private firm, which works in close coordination with Russian security agencies," the outlet reported the embattled mother as saying. 

Credit: AP 

Bekenov's mother is now appealing to Russian law enforcement, and the Kazakh Embassy in Russia to intervene and help her get her son back, who, she claims, was sent to the war "against his will." The mother was able to put pieces together about her son's whereabouts via "a friend who is a fellow student and through a girl who knew Margulan," Magzhan Kakharmanov, Margulan’s uncle and a Kazakh military retiree was quoted as saying. She investigated some facts, gathered more detail, and "was able to put together the pieces of the puzzle,” Kakharmanov, who was authorized to speak to  RFE/RL on behalf of the missing boy's mother, further added.

The uncle revealed that in search of her son, the woman travelled to Krasnodar, a city in southern Russia. 

“She [the mother] knew what kind of organization [PMC Wagner] is,” boy's uncle was quoted saying. “She went to there every day, wandering around, asking at every entrance. She was told categorically: ‘No one like that here. Sorry.’”

Uncle of the draftee boy claimed that his mother was able to "briefly" meet with her son at a military checkpoint in a settlement outside of Krasnodar but refuses to divulge how she managed to arrange such a meeting. “Then, as I understand it, she found out from someone walking around nearby – she bribed him with some gift or money – that her son was inside. She showed them his photograph. The man looked and said, yes, that is him and gave the number of his unit. You have to admire her resourcefulness and determination. She was able to locate her son when official complaints revealed nothing," Margulan’s uncle told the Siberian arm of the media outlet.

The boy was brought by military superiors in their car, and he was given only five minutes to speak with his mother in the presence of an officer who was also a Kazakh from Karaganda.

“They had a broken, disjointed conversation in which the other man inserted his five kopecks’ worth every other word,” the uncle was reported as telling.

Kazakh Foreign Ministry 'incompetent': Boy's uncle

The woman, who was refused by the military to take her son back to Kazakhstan described that he was in a "bad condition" and “exhausted." On April 12, she learnt from camp officers that he was sent to Ukraine to fight in the war. The family reportedly logged hundreds of complaints and escalated the matter with the military commission in Krasnodar and the prosecutor’s office in St. Petersburg, where Wagner is registered, officially.

A few weeks ago, she received a response from Kazakh Foreign Ministry that notified her that the matter has been escalated with the authorities in Russia. “The Foreign Ministry and the embassy have been completely incompetent," meanwhile the uncle described. 

Bekenov was seen in a viral footage that got circulated last week, wherein he was heard saying that he had gone into the war in Ukraine “voluntarily" to fight on the side of Russia. The mother, however, believes that the boy was coerced into filming the statement. “We need to warn people whose children are studying in Russia,” the boy's uncle asserted, adding that the Kazakhs “are in danger. At any moment they could be impressed and sent to their deaths," referring to the war.  

Kazakhstan's defence ministry later clarified that Bekenov was declared unfit to serve in the Kazakh military. Kazakh authorities warned that Bekenov would be arrested and face criminal charges leading up to 5-6 years of imprisonment when he returns. Kazakhstan's National Security Committee, in a statement, reiterated that any form of participation of the citizens of Kazakhstan in foreign armed conflicts “ is fulfilled only in cases, envisaged in appropriate legislation, international treaties ratified by the Republic."

“Warn your relatives whose children are studying in Russia,” boy's uncle said, as per his statement carried by Kazakh media. “Since PRIGOZHIN is no longer given convicts to make up for his losses, he’s started to snatch up Asians and recruit them into the group against their will.”

Wagner conscripting military-aged men 'by force'

Wagner’s owner, a Kremlin-backed oligarch dubbed as 'Putin's chef', has been accused of conscripting military-aged men "by force” to fight for a mercenary group in the Bakhmut battle that he, in recorded visuals, termed as a “meat grinder.” He stated that the mercenaries group recruits about 500 to 800 people on average per day, which shoots up to an estimated 1,200 sometimes. “It is possible that this number of recruits may decrease after some time; however, by the middle of May, we plan that the number of fighters of the unit will increase by approximately 30,000,” Prigozhin informed in an audio message, as the group started a recruitment drive ahead of Ukraine's counteroffensive. 

Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. Credit: Wagner/Telegram

Earlier this month, at least six mobilised Russian soldiers who hailed from Sakha Republic [or Yakutia] claimed in a video that they were transferred "involuntarily" to a Wagner group to fight Russia's war. One of the mobilised soldiers identified as Stepan Nazarov reportedly said that they were “forced by threats” by Wagner mercenaries to sign a contract.