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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
A serviceman of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine was charged with desertion and treason for escaping from Azovstal in Mariupol in March 16 2022 and subsequently crossing to the side of the Russians. He is charged with offenses committed under martial law, and the penalties provide up to 15 years of imprisonment or life in prison.
Under the procedural guidance of the Mariupol Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in the Defense of the Eastern Region, the Office of the Prosecutor General reports that the man was charged with desertion and treason. According to the investigation, in March 16 2022 year, while performing a combat mission at the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol, he left his post and the area of the mission on his own accord to avoid serving in the military.
The pretrial investigation established that in November 2023 year, while in temporarily occupied Mariupol, the suspect underwent an interview with representatives of the so‑called “DNR” and joined an illegal armed formation—the so‑called “Bogdan Khmelnytsky Battalion,” subordinated to the Russian Armed Forces, where he took an oath of loyalty to Russia. According to the investigation, he is currently a commander of a mortar crew, uses the call sign “Sky,” and participates in hostilities against Ukraine.
More detailed circumstances of the escape were revealed by the State Bureau of Investigation, which, based on materials from the Security Service of Ukraine, formally charged the same former border service inspector. According to the DBI, the man did not fulfill the leadership’s order to redeploy, left his post on his own, hid, and later voluntarily arrived at the commandant’s office of the Russian occupation forces and surrendered.
“The DBI systematically exposes servicemen who, during the war, betrayed their oath, switched to the enemy’s side, and fought against Ukraine with weapons,” the State Bureau of Investigation noted.
After passing the so‑called filtration, the man spent some time in one of the colonies on the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region together with Ukrainian prisoners of war. In November 2023 year, he joined the first batch of the “Bogdan Khmelnytsky Battalion,” and he also gave interviews to Russian propagandists in which he discredited the Ukrainian authorities and the Armed Forces. According to him, he urged Ukrainian POWs to refuse exchange and to defect to the enemy.
Outlined charges
He was charged in absentia with desertion committed under martial law (part 4 Article 408 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and treason committed under martial law (part 2 Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The penalties for these articles provide up to 15 years of imprisonment or life imprisonment with confiscation of property.
According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court verdict. Procedural leadership in the case is carried out by the Mariupol Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in the Defense of the Eastern Region.
Uncovering collaborators in the occupied territories
Earlier, Informator reported that in Zaporizhzhia region another suspect emerged, a collaborator who headed the occupation ‘university’ and handed over property worth 2 million hryvnias to the Russians. We also wrote that four “DNR deputies” are suspected of sending to the front 60 000 men from Donetsk who were forcibly mobilized in the temporarily occupied territory.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Прикордонник дезертирував під час оборони Маріуполя і пішов служити в ДНР - йому оголосили підозру, загрожує довічне". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Informator.
