The counterintelligence of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has detained two servicemen of the 291st Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Southern Military District of the Russian Federation in the frontline territory of Donbas. According to the SBU press service, both contract soldiers fled the combat line in the Kramatorsk direction, changed into civilian clothes, and attempted to infiltrate Kyiv via a hitchhiked car. The detention took place at a checkpoint at the entrance to the Dnipropetrovsk region, where one of the suspects was found wearing a Russian army serviceman dog tag around his neck. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to official SBU data.
The 'Lay Low' Plan: How the Militants Tried to Reach the Capital
According to the investigation, both detainees had recently been dispatched to storm Ukrainian positions in the Kramatorsk direction. During hostilities, they left the contact line and entered a settlement located in the so-called 'gray zone.' There, in an abandoned house, they found civilian clothes, changed, and buried their Russian army uniforms and service weapons in the same building. Afterward, they headed on foot to the nearest district center, where they flagged down a passing car. The driver agreed to give them a lift to Dnipro, from where, according to their plan, they intended to continue their journey to Kyiv. As the investigation established, one of the militants has relatives living in the capital, and that is where they intended to 'lay low.' However, the plan failed: both were detained near the administrative border of the frontline region.
Who Was Driving the Escape: Biographies of the Detainees
One of the suspects turned out to be a resident of the temporarily occupied Dovzhansk in the Luhansk region, twice convicted of murder. According to the SBU, he had been fighting on the side of armed formations since 2016, and after the start of the full-scale invasion, he participated in battles near Bakhmut as an assistant gunner for an anti-tank missile system. The second detainee is a Russian citizen who signed a contract with the aggressor country's Ministry of Defense directly while serving a prison sentence for murder. Thus, both militants had criminal records for grave crimes even before joining the ranks of the Russian army.
Legal Consequences: From Life Imprisonment to Prisoner of War Status
SBU investigators served the Luhansk resident with a notice of suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Parts 1 and 2 of Article 111 (high treason committed under martial law) and Part 7 of Article 111-1 (collaborationist activity). The suspect has been remanded in custody without the right to bail; he faces life imprisonment with property confiscation. His accomplice—a Russian citizen—is currently being held in the status of a prisoner of war. The investigation is ongoing to clarify all circumstances of the crime.
Context: A Series of Detentions of Fled Russian Military Personnel
The recorded incident is not isolated. Recently, the Security Service of Ukraine reported the detention of a Russian serviceman in the Kharkiv region who, according to the agency, brutally murdered five Ukrainian servicemen and one civilian. Systematic detentions of Russian military personnel abandoning the front line and trying to hide in the rear in civilian clothes indicate a growing level of desertion within Russian army units, which has been documented by Ukrainian special services throughout the entire period of hostilities.
