The grim life and brutal death of a Wagner recruit

BARVINKOVE, Ukraine—Yevgeny Nuzhin, an ex-cop and convicted killer, had carved out as good a life as a penniless inmate could expect inside a high-security Russian prison.

During his two decades behind bars, Mr. Nuzhin had ingratiated himself with inmates and prison authorities, affording him a contraband phone, an exemption from prison work and three nights with a woman he had married in the prison chapel.