MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian military court on Tuesday jailed a soldier for 15 years after convicting him of desertion and voluntary surrender to Ukraine, Russia’s first such prosecution, the Kommersant newspaper reported.
Russia in September 2022 introduced the crime of voluntary surrender, which is punishable by between three and 10 years in prison.
According to Kommersant, a court on the far eastern Russian island of Sakhalin found soldier Roman Ivanishin guilty of voluntary surrender, of attempting to voluntarily surrender, and of desertion.
Ivanishin, who was reported to have denied all the charges, will serve his sentence in a maximum security facility.
His trial was held behind closed doors.
The newspaper reported that Ivanishin, a miner on Sakhalin in civilian life whom local media described as a veteran of Russia’s wars in Chechnya, was mobilised in 2022 and fought in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
He was captured by Ukrainian soldiers in June 2023 and, in a video published on the internet, was shown denouncing Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine and calling on other soldiers to desert.
It was not clear from the report in Kommersant whether he had been speaking under duress in the video. His defence team was reported to have sought his acquittal, saying there was no evidence he had committed any crime.
Ivanishin was returned to Russia in a prisoner exchange in January 2024 and was placed under investigation, Kommersant said.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Felix Light; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
