[1][2] As a young man, he served in the Ministry of Interior of the Russian Army and after the completion of his service, he settled in Nizhny Novgorod.

[4] Nuzhin stated that he joined Wagner Group after Yevgeny Prigozhin visited his prison in Ryazan region.

[7][2][6] On 13 November, a Wagner Group-affiliated Telegram channel released a video titled "The hammer of revenge"[6] showing Nuzhin's "execution for treachery" using a sledgehammer.

"[6][8] In this video Nuzhin said that he was kidnapped on 11 November 2022, while walking in the streets of Kyiv, Ukraine, although it is possible the Wagner Group forced him to say this to warn others.

[6][4] According to the human rights group Gulagu.net, he was either recaptured or passed back to the Russian Army which handed him over to Wagner Security Service.

[4] On 13 November, Gulagu.net called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate how Nuzhin ended up in Wagner Group captivity despite having surrendered to Ukraine.

[10] After the 2017 videotaped murder of Hamadi Bouta, a Syrian Army deserter, who was beaten to death with a sledgehammer by members of Wagner Group before his body was beheaded and set on fire, and the murder of Yevgeny Nuzhin, Wagner Group made sledgehammers a part of its brand.