G'day legends, I hope you've had a great start to the week, Todays Podcast is with Kum a Russian Soldier who has served in Multiple PMC's Including PMC Wagner. And was wounded in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Wagner has been in the spotlight more so than usual with the death of Prigozhin and Utkin over the past week. You make this possible, to The Support Channel directly: www.patreon.com/willybeatingcancer www.paypal.me/MWilliams745 MERCH willys-merch.creator-spring.com/

As someone who speaks Russian, hat's off to Ivan for great translation as an amateur.

No one's going to believe me when i say this but I literally thought to myself 2 hours ago "Man I wonder if Willy would ever interview a Wagner fella, whats up with those guys?" and like the parrot who shit on me when I was 9, Willy has swooped in and dropped greatness right on my head, Thank You Big Man 🙏

I get the impression that Wagner is a easy way for Russians to get a Marine Corp-like experience without having to put up with a huge bureaucracy.

The funny thing about this interview that they openly mock Russian TV propaganda, while the majority of Australians cannot detect propaganda in state news and genuinely believe what they told.

You’re a legend Willy, unbiased journalist. Excellent work

Man this was the longest felt video ever with the language barrier, translator’s accent, CC completely not working on KZfaq, but it was great this is an actual journalistic achievement. If this was back in 90s’ you would be collecting journalism rewards left and right for the past year. Thank you for keeping everyone informed with both perspectives

Мы победим !

I am a professional interpreter, could provide free translation next time, if interested reply to this comment. A lot of meaning gets lost, things like this need precise and conscious interpretation, along with terminology, cultural customs, extra comments, etc. Lived and worked in the US for 5 years, native Russian speaker.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, regardless of sides the soldiers are the most important part and Willy has brought more interviews pertinent to this conflict than ALL other KZfaqrs. Huge respect Willy, I’m sure I’ll enjoy this like all the others you’ve done

Willy this is truly journalism in its most important, and purest sense. Hearing both sides in the moment, during the event, is critical for peace and for the curtailing of the bloodthirsty hate that can drag conflicts on long after the last shot is fired.

I've summarized this for people who might not have close to 3 hours to spend on this: (part 1 of 2) About halfway through the Willy OAM interview with Wagner soldier and some great moments that confirm what I've said before. 1. Wagner compared to Ukrainian nationalist battalions are much less violent when it comes to breaking the law in regards to war crimes. 2. Wagner has similar rules to regular military in regards to how they handle themselves. They are not allowed to commit war crimes or break the Geneva Conventions. 3. They don't get paid that much more compared to regular military so only patriots join since the pay is not great compared to western mercs so it doesn't make sense to risk your life for a little more money than the regular military. 4. Wagners security forces would punish anyone who abuses prison recruits and they are not allowed to use them in abusive ways. 5. The mythical sledgehammer is just a PR/propaganda device and has never been used to hurt anyone. It is just a fear tactic. 6. Prigozhin didn't die because "legends never die". 7. Prigozhin wasn't killed by Putin because our military and government officials aren't morons, they are actually smart. The only people he thinks could conceive of such a ridiculous conspiracy is a actor with a cocaine habit. 8. Wagner soldier does not think he is superior to Ukrainians. He sees the war similar to a civil war. He says Ukrainians are the same as Russians. (Part 2 of 2) The second half of the interview was a lot denser so it came out as a lot longer in writing which is why I have not numbered them. Here are the summarized main points I found salient: -Wagner warriors aren't drunks or drug addicts as people with such problems are not allowed to be active members. -March was a "march for justice" where they wanted to iron out some tiny details that Wagner felt was not correctly negotiated. The so-called "mutiny" achieved their demands. -Wagner has different units that are based around languages. For example, they have a English speaking unit, French speaking units, German, and Arabic speaking unit and so on of non-Russian citizens. No Australians however, but they joked with interviewer that he "would be the first one Willy". -Regarding if journalists are allowed in Wagner to report on them. Interviewee is not a commander so he can't really say other than to remark that it depends on the opinion of the unit’s commander and the PMC "information center" in regards to that topic but that he has observed international reporters, some even critical of the Russian government, working alongside some units. It really depends on if the news agency has connections to "destructive" entities. These are especially most common in Donetsk and Luhansk. -If Willy OAM wants to report on Wagner, they can try to help him regarding that however he won't be at the front line itself. Jokingly they mentioned that if Willy OAM insists however maybe they can help him visit those sites as well but if he died, they would absolutely be upset and very sad. So "don't do that please". -In regards to how his Wagner forces compared to western trained forces the interviewee states that ever since the instructors arrived the skill of the units have dropped "through the ground" and are a lot worse than when "Ukrainians were fighting themselves". -In regards to Western volunteers such as HIMARS specialists, Patriot operators, sappers/combat engineers, they are very much capable and skilled in their field and they deserve to "eat their bread" as they say in Russian (translator does not know how to translate this in another more literal way). -Specifically, in regards to Patriot battery operators he wanted to compliment them for managing to send 6 missiles into one Kinzhal missile before they were hammered by a Russian Kinzhal. He believes it’s a nice rate of fire in his opinion. Wagner soldier and translator started laughing afterwards. -Willy OAM then asks a loaded question regarding why the Russians are struggling on the battlefield then. Wagner soldier somewhat sarcastically says he has a higher education background and isn't a "r*dn*ck" so he doesn't know how to answer such a difficult question in a few sentences. He continues that the Russian government tried to negotiate to prevent this war behind the scenes and this was not public negotiations. Which is why initially the Russian government didn't prepare for a prolonged war (a war over 3 months). The Russian military doctrine has only been evolving for about a year. It was hard to understand the next statement but the translator said "at the moment we have fresh military intelligence" (it seemed like he was trying to say they have a current fresh military doctrine). -The next question was regarding how the general Russian public views him when he reveals to them, he has been a Wagner soldier. He simply answered "they just see me as a Russian soldier", as a defender of Russian land, and a Russian patriot. Wagner is viewed in an elevated manner or perhaps in a romanticized way due to their elite level of expertise. -They next discussed how the soldier got injured by a bullet to the back that went between his front and back armor plates during a storm assault type mission. When asked if he would return to the battlefield after his injury, he replied that he did two contracts after that injury and laughs before saying "because you can't kill Russians". Willy OAM presses on by stating "we have seen high Russian casualty figures". Wagner soldier states that they do have high losses and that they've lost all types of soldiers from all types of specialties but in relation to this basically being the third world war, when viewed in context, Ukrainians lose at least 4 soldiers for every Russian and in some places of combat there is even 7 Ukrainians to every Russian soldier killed. -They asked if they could just have a smoke break and talk about something other than the war for a moment so they talk about if sanctions have had any effect on western imports. They laugh and say they have too many western products and some products such as Coka Cola seems to be even cheaper than before the war. These products are acquired through third party agreements with nations like Iran, India, Poland, neighboring nations, etc. -Willy OAM wanted to know how people like them think of people like him. Do they view people like him as "enemies". He says they are obviously talking to him so they don't think negatively of people like him even if some of the questions he asks are a bit stupid for their own opinion (seems like he was trying to say "from the frame of reference where they are coming from"). They believe their enemies are those who want to destroy their civilization, their country, enslave them, and rape their children. They added their regime and government, although they might not like it themselves, they view people who want to remove their government as enemies as well because a civil war is the worst thing that can happen to their country. -They then pretend to not know where Australia is because they are orcs before saying it was a joke they actually know where Australia is. The medic then states he has been friends with a German guy who fought against Donbass in 2014-15 and that he remarked that he encountered Azov soldiers who he said were a bunch of degenerates that don't have anything in common with actual national socialism. The same German soldier was asked at the start of the SMO if he could help out again and he refused because he had previously been told by regular civilians to leave the country because he was a foreigner on Slavic lands and that he was trying to profit of their conflict. -Towards the end of the interview, they discussed Bucha and the Wagner soldier states that when Russian soldiers were giving out humanitarian aid the civilians were targeted by Ukrainian artillery which injured and killed a bunch of civilians since, unlike soldiers, they don't wear body armor and helmets. He added that when people who actually commit war crimes discusses situations where crimes were committed, they often talk in a joking manner such as saying "we did it for the lulz" but the soldiers that were in Irpin and Butcha were outraged that anyone would believe they committed such war crimes. Willy OAM pressed further and they replied that some of the soldiers who returned to Belarus afterwards were severely interrogated regarding what happened since the western media was making such a big fuss about everything. The only case they know of something happening around Kiev was a few men who did something to some young girl but the next day they summarily executed by gunshot for their crimes. If you don't like my summary, you are welcome to use a A.I. tool to summarize the interview instead.

Willy, you might just be one of the most impartial and, simultaneously, well-informed journalists covering this conflict. Your updates are an absolutely vital resource to me. Thanks for all your coverage.

Great work, as far as I know this is the only channel that does interviews of both sides in this war👍👍

Willy is gonna go down as the worlds best content creator/reporter for constantly allowing for all parties to speak and weigh in

Nice one mate! Nice to see you getting all sides of the story out there! Hopefully more to come🤞🏼

That was a great watch. So interesting to hear the other side of the narrative. Willy is awesome, and I can't wait to see where this channel goes in the future. Much love brother❤

Wow, this is one for the history books. Good job securing this one Willy 👍🏽

Hats off to getting interviews like this. It just highlights the insanity of it all. Just a bunch of young guys who probably would all get along killing each other.

Another great interview Willy. I appreciate the opinions you provide from both sides and hope you can bring us more content in the future. Ivan is great and enjoy listening to his insights. Thank you Willy for what you do. Its very important to get the prospective of both sides.

New subscriber here, you are a great interviewer. I love how you allow them to talk without cutting them off and how your professionalism redirects them back to the important topics instead of being provocative.

Excellent interview and good to let the guys speak. Keep up such a format and promote different views. People need to see this.

Hearing both sides of the story is the path to Peace. Well done Willy.

this is some kick ass journalism man i hope to see these guys around more

Well done Willy, so important to be aware of all the narratives in this terrible War.

Thank you Willy. We truly appreciate your integrity.

Excellent interview. Thank you for your work Willy.

Raw and unfiltered is so valuable no matter what your opinion. Thankyou for this. Keep up the good work.

Thank you as always Willy you are an absolute legend my man

This is real journalism, once again ty for an interview we wouldn’t see any where else 👏🏽

Happy to hear this interview, Im glad he agreed to do it

Great interview. You're very good at interviewing Willy. Good questions and no interruptions like on tv news

Excellent video, good job from Ivan to translate. Willy I must say you sir are better than any journalist talking about this conflict, you empathize (without agreeing) with any of your interviewee and that allow for extensive and seemingly honest answers. Also your questions are good, straight to the point and always relevant. Great job sir.

It's incredibly important to have this kind of open journalism.

I've been learning Russian for over a year, and speaking with natives all over Eastern Europe, the guy on the right has pretty good English, and this was an amazing interesting video to help with my language learning, thank you!

Glad you interview fighters from both side, and appreciate your style and approach. Keep up the good work @willyOAM.

Amazing work yet again mate. Keep up the good work!

Okay, so kind of a summary, i think, is: After he was in the service, he joined Wagner and went to either the Middle East or Africa because he feels the Western international order is unfair and wants a multipolar world. He joined the fight in Ukraine because of the large and growing presence of anti-russian ethnicity comments online. He feels Russia invaded Ukraine because after the "civil war" had started to stagnate, the Ukrainian government was building up military strength to fight against Russia. He thinks that Ukrainians are fleeing west, and those that went to Russia can not go back because the Ukrainians will imprison or torture them for fleeing to Russia. He says Ukrainian groups commit crimes against humanity, not Russian PMCs He believes that the prison conscrips are good because they have the warrior spirit, they're disciplined, and they are true survivors. He says Wagner has operated under Russian military law for the last 9 years. He says the sledgehammer is the representation of justice and has only been used a few times for PR. He doesn't believe that Prigozhin was killed by the Russian government. He was part of the standard military, then 2 separate PMCs in Ukraine, and didn't take part in the mutiny. He refuses to say who he supports/talk on the mutiny because he doesn't want groups to take interest. He did say it was a march of justice against the Russian MIC and that it helped a lot of people. There are Wagner common language units with foreigners from Western nations and the Middle East. He never saw non Russian citizen fighters on his side during his time there, but he did come across dead Polish and Georgian fighters on the Ukrainian side. Polish military engineers have been doing good work for Ukrainian defenses, apparently. He believes British and American specialists in the area aren't volunteer forces but government forces. He says the reason Russia didn't win quickly is because they thought they would be able to come to a quick deal with Ukraine and didn't prepare for a longer, larger conflict. He got injured by a bullet and did 2 contracts after that. He says that Ukrainian losses are much larger than Russian ones, and he says this is basically World War 3, which is why there are so many casualties. They say Western products are more ubiquitous now because of trade through 3rd party nations. They believe that westerners aren't the enemy, but they believe it is an existential threat against them, and they are fighting for survival. He says he has a friend who fought on Ukraine's side and says they were very degenerate. War story: he was light infantry who was acting in support of the VDV. They were gathering intel, performing recognition/counter recognition services, and storming assualt operations. They were better outfitted and looked more professional than standard infantry because of this. When they came across other units, they were moral boosting for the Russian regulars. They were deployed at the more difficult areas and were tasked with breaking the Ukrainian lines in the middle of a forest line and clearing the trenches. He noticed that although the average age was 20 among them, they seemed much older and weathered, true warriors in his eyes. With only 17 men, they assaulted the Ukrainian trenches defended by 100+ men. They got wrecked in his words, but no one on his side died. He says even with 100 Ukrainians in the trench, Ukrainian artillery was working against them, probably causing blue on blue casualties as he said 2 days later the position was taken. He also says a funny bit where the hq sent a rocket to get immediately shot down by AA even though they had already witnessed 2 drones get downed by the same AA. He finishes the interview with saying he had heard that bucha wasn't Russian war crimes but the result of shelling and that one rape he did know of the Russian military executed the perpetrator. (Some odd notes they laughed hard about antifa actions in Ukraine probably eluding to it being Russian backed, they laughed hard about the afghan hat which eludes to them aiding Western opponents)

Willy, You Rock!! Keep up the great work!

Thank You for showing the both sides in this bloody war

Great work Willy - it’s great to see a diverse range of interviewees. Let’s hope KZfaq doesn’t Nerf this interview

Great content as always. You are easily the best one to follow regarding ukraine conflict. Minimum bias. Great work!

Excellent content Willy. No one else has the balls to do what you’re doing, keep up the good work!

Great vid Willy thank you so much, what an amazing perspective you have put to light here mate. 👏👏

Thank you for taking the risk to have this interview Willy. Whether we agree or disagree, it's always good to hear both sides and make up our own minds.

Good work with the interview Willy, very interesting. Somewhat chilling and amusing at the same time.

That was a great interview... probably the best one... KUDOS for that one Willy!

This is cracking the code Willy. Outstanding journalism

An important interview Willy. Nicely done.

Thanks for this unbiased interview. Awesome reporting!

One of the best interviews you've done @Willy OAM!

WOW!! You sir are a savage in the name of journalism.👍 as always killing it

Thank you Willy. I was hoping that you will interview a „musician“ some day. You are doing great work, this is my favorite channel covering the war. Cheers from Germany, legend ❤

Thank you for your work Willy

We “westerners” don’t understand the Russian society, they are raised that their territory security is above all else. Their history is rooted in enduring times of unimaginable suffering that most can’t imagine. Look at any war Russia has been involved in and it’s been a complete cluster fuck the first year and then they adapt. Their man power and industrial capacity eventually comes to bear and its hard to match. We talk all this shit but what war have we won since WW2?…. I have my experiences and it’s hard for me to say that but it’s the truth

Huge respect to Willy for this interview

Journalism on a highest level! Great work!

Awesome, Thanks Willy!

Best interview you had so far Willy.

thanks to kum and ivan for telling there site of the war and of course thanks to willy for making this kind of content...!!!

Only 1 hour in so far - hopefully video stays up, thanks for doing this interview mate

It took me several sessions to watch it all, but thanks nevertheless: Thank you very much Willy for this great work. Thanks for sharing the view from the other side of this conflict. I also want to thank Ivan and Kum for sharing your view, opinion and experience of this story. It is for sure not easy to show and defend your point of view and even though I don´t agree with many of your opinions I am gratefull you explained them to me and the others watching this. Hopefully this will help after the end of the conflict and when justice has been served to see both "lower level" involved armed forces as humans which is the most important part!

Those guys were great, thank you

Great Work Willy! Crazy that one can laugh together with people one might have to face in war sooner or later.

great journalism thank u all

Willys interviews are going to go down in history - for real. Legend.

Great podcast willie, love it, that you let all sides off the conflict get their word in. These are just real guys like anyone of us and this is a great opportunity to show the world we are all just people. I hope the killing stops soon and we as humanity can just band together and go on to do great things together. All this war and killing in the world is just futile..

This is awesome Willy! We don’t get these kinds of interviews anywhere else. Thanks man!

thank you to willy, ivan and masked man for this interview. its good to have several views on conflicts and not only a one sided view. the last interview with ivan was a highlight of youtube and i watched it several times, this one is qualitative less interesting because of the language barrage and the translation, but the value is insinuative. good job on both parts for giving insight to what is suppressed by media.

Willy your coverage on this conflict is 2nd to none!

Wow, that was an amazing interview.

Very interesting and rare interview, it really deserves an accurate translation, because Ivan was tired and was trying to cheer himself up, while Wagner guy gave serious and deep answers that were lost.

Willy man if you, with your prior military experience, could get an interview with frontline Russian troops, that content would be interesting, especially with your prior military background. Maybe even do both sides of the same sector of the line. The interview with the AFU and RU units facing off would be really something

Brilliant interview Willy, that guys hardcore

Bro this is absolutely one of the coolest bits of journalism I’ve seen about this war.

Love the yandex market t-shirt! Well done Will! These guys seem pretty rad!

As others have said your commitment to presenting both sides of the story is admirable and highly appreciated.

The interview we’ve all been waiting for

Fantastic interview willy. It started off very interesting but after some time there true colours showed up but you do great work👍

I think its great to here no only from the Ukraine side but from the Russian side as well. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to see both sides. Love your content.

Keep up the good work Willy! Unbiased, balanced and honest. Wish more media outlets were like you!

Hey willy thanks for this. My father also loves this content. Thanks for the bonding time with my pops! but also this interview really humanize the other side for me...

thanks Willy, Kum, and Ivan!

Tru crazy Slavs! Much love from allso crazy brother Serb 💪🫡

To have tea with these guys would be awesome!!!

Thanks for the interview

Fascinating thank you big yin .You really have fitted into the role of the war journalism well done m8 .l will need to listen to it again later on tonight.

I got so excited any interview with a disclaimer is going to be good 🎉

What's BS is everyone fights each other but we are all so similar. Im sure if there was no war and politics the average person no matter the country could sit together just the same as with fellow country men

Great interview all 3 im having to do it in 2 parts buts its very interesting and important to get views from both sides of this conflict. Keep up the good work bro 💪

yeah this is awesome good stuff willy

The Fighter has a very competent Russian speech, he uses complex expressions and concepts,................ but the translator simplifies everything.

It's so fascinating how you have a mutual professional respect and understanding for each other when, if you were on the ground in Ukraine, you would be fighting against each other.

Excellent interview. Very interesting. Great journalism

Thank you willy for your hard work bro 🙏 your the true definition of a neutral source that isnt biased tourds neither party .

Glass cleaner😂😂 wel done Willy great interview once again💪🏻

You are definition of a neutral source! Thankyou for doing this! There are always two side to a coin

Amazing, ive been hoping for this since i first started watching, im impresed you managed it, good job ! thank for the video , sorry i havent seen it yet i got too exited whn i saw the title

Great work Willy !

William, thank you. First of all I love your content. I can’t believe I just recently found your channel. YT obviously only by now thought that after months of following anything Ukrainian or Russian I’m qualified to be suggested your channel 😂. Noone offers comparable content, I’m fascinated by the interviews especially, I love it that you try to interview people who can contribute all aspects involved in this war. But let me also say, Ive been comvinced for years now that nothing humans say or do can surprise me. Well, I was just tought a lesson. Thank you for this informative interview. I admire your courage - finally someone presents various opinions from all sides. I am sorry reading your personal story. I hope one way or the other a medical solution can be found to help you, offer you relief or even get this thing out without damage to the surrounding tissue. All the best to you & keep up your good work! Many greetings from the other side of the world 🙋‍♀️