Ukraine releases footage of Wagner soldiers appearing to beat up their commander

Ukraine has released extraordinary video footage that appears to show Russian fighters dragging their badly wounded commander away from the battlefield, and then beating him violently with what appear to be shovels.

A Ukrainian drone captured the incident near the eastern city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has been raging for months. It was released on Ukrainian social media channels on Monday. Speaking in his nightly address, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukrainian units were repelling repeated Russian attempts to encircle Bakhmut and break through its defences

The conflict began with the Ukrainian Revolution of 2014, which saw the ousting of the pro-Russian President Yanukovych and the rise of a new pro-Western government in Kiev. This sparked a military intervention by Russia, which annexed Crimea and supported separatist rebels in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.