On January 14, a video appeared in the telegram channel of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s press service, where “Putin’s chef” presents “commander capture of Soledar” The name of the man with whom Prigozhin is standing against the backdrop of a destroyed house is not disclosed, but the creator of the Wagner PMC calls him an experienced fighter who took the city “without chewing snot in two weeks” In fact, the battles for Soledar have continued since the spring of 2022 and, according to the Ukrainian side, are still going on.
The Dossier Center identified the mercenary commander Prigozhin in Soledar. His name is Anton Olegovich Elizarov. He was born in 1981 in the Rostov region, graduated from the Ulyanovsk Guards Suvorov Military School in 1998, and from the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School in 2003.
Elizarov served in the 108th Regiment of the 7th Guards Air Assault Division in Novorossiysk, where he commanded a platoon and a company. In addition, he was a group commander in the 10th separate special forces brigade in Molkino. During his service he took part in hostilities in the North Caucasus.
In 2014, Elizarov’s military career went downhill. His accused of fraud with a service apartment — Elizarov provided false documents during its privatization. The court sentenced him to three years suspended imprisonment and a fine of 100 thousand rubles. Elizarov unsuccessfully sued the Ministry of Defense for the apartment, he was evicted in 2016.
Since at least 2016, Elizarov has been registered with Wagner since call sign “Lotos”, number M-0136. He fought in Syria, where he was wounded in the hip by shrapnel in 2017, worked as an instructor in the Central African Republic in 2018-2019, and commanded an assault detachment in Libya in 2021.
In September 2022, Elizarov appeared together with Prigozhin and the governor of the Vologda region at the funeral of Wagnerist Alexei Nagin. The video footage shows awards on Elizarov – the star of the hero of Russia and the star of the hero of the unrecognized DPR and LPR.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”