“I saw it as a duty”
Peskow’s son claims to have fought in Ukraine
4/23/2023 2:46 p.m
Like many other elite Russians, Nikolai Peskov appears to have no interest in going to war in Ukraine. Now the turnaround: In an interview, the son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirms statements made by Wagner boss Prigozchin and reports on his service at the front.
The son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov says he fought in Ukraine as a member of the Wagner mercenary group. He served there under a false name as an artilleryman, Nikolai Peskov said in an interview with the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. The 33-year-old says he himself took the initiative for the mission: “I saw it as my duty,” says Peskov, whose father has been spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2008.
The Peskov son thus apparently confirms information from Wagner boss Yevgeny Progoshin. He had already stated on Saturday that Peskov had served in the mercenary force as an artilleryman in the contested Luhansk region. The statements by Peskov and Prigozhin cannot be substantiated. Most of the children of the Russian elite shy away from military service – apparently including Peskov: the son of the Kremlin spokesman is said to have fallen for a fake call in September and refused to be drafted. In the recording, Peskov asks rhetorically whether the military administration doesn’t know who he is and, without waiting for an answer, says: “To make it short: I’ll clarify the matter at another level.”
Only a little later Peskov had apparently changed his mind: Wagner boss Prigozhin states that his father, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, approached him and asked him to hire his son as an artilleryman.
“He’s proud of me”
As Nikolai Peskov himself claims in the interview, he then wants to have signed a contract with Wagner for a little less than half a year. He says he served under a false name to hide his true identity. According to the newspaper, the Peskow son also received a bravery medal for his bravery. To verify his use, she published a photo of him in uniform. When asked what his father thinks about it, Nikolai says: “He’s proud of me, I think. My father told me that I made the right decision.”
Born in 1990, Nikolai Peskov lived in Britain for ten after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. He then returned to Russia and served in the Russian Regular Army’s Strategic Missile Forces from 2010 to 2012.