31yearold man abandoned his unit mobilized in Ukraine offensive; Putin signed amendments providing up to 10 years in prison for those who refuse to fight
Olga MALTSEVA / AFP
A Russian soldier was shot dead for deserting his offensive unit Ukraine. The information was given by the authorities of Russia This Wednesday, April 18 “Dmitry Perov, who was wanted for voluntarily leaving a military unit without a permit, has been found and eliminated,” the government of the Lipetsk region in western Russia said in a statement on Telegram. The source did not specify where he was killed or under what circumstances. According to the state communications company VGTRK, the 31yearold soldier defected from the “military special operations zone in Ukraine” and was wanted in the Voronezh and Lipetsk regions. Several cases of defections by soldiers have been reported in Russia in recent months. On Monday the 16th, a Wagner Group mercenary asked for asylum in Norway and promised to cooperate in the investigation of crimes committed by the Russians in exchange for security.
On Wednesday, the Kommersant newspaper reported that criminal proceedings had been launched against eight soldiers who are accused of having left a base in Ukraine’s Luhansk region with their weapons in December. They would have taken a taxi to Russia. In early December, Russian security forces also arrested a fugitive accused of shooting dead a police officer and who, according to press reports, is a defector to the Wagner paramilitary group. After the start of the offensive in Ukraine, the Russian President Wladimir Putin, signed amendments providing up to 10 years in prison for soldiers who desert or refuse to fight. In September, faced with severe setbacks on the Ukrainian frontline, Putin ordered 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine, prompting tens of thousands of Russians to flee the country to avoid conscription.