A court in Sakhalin sentenced a contract soldier to 13 years in a maximum-security prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine. Informs Ukrainska Pravda.
Source: Russian BBC News service, referring to the website of the South Sakhalin Garrison Military Court.
Details: It is reported that this week the contract soldier was found guilty in a case of desertion during mobilisation (Art. 338.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and sentenced to nine years in prison.
The court's website says that the man did not report to the military unit, wanting to "avoid being sent to the zone of a special military operation [as the Russians call the war against Ukraine – ed.] and spend time idly".
In February of this year, he was already conditionally sentenced in a case of leaving the unit without permission (Art. 337.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Therefore, the Russian contract soldier was sentenced to 13 years in a strict-regime colony.
Mediazona reported that the soldier in question is Maksim Aleksandrovich Kochetkov, born in 2002.
The Insider stated that Kochetkov was among the Russian servicemen who were held in inhumane conditions in a closed colony in Luhansk Oblast of Ukraine last year because they refused to fight.
