Ukraine’s military has revealed more details about a sabotage group, which included three Russian citizens, that it says it eliminated in Luhansk Oblast on June 24.
“Last week, Ukraine received yet more evidence of Russian involvement in the fighting in eastern Ukraine,” Defense Ministry spokesman Vilyen Pidgorny said during a briefing in Kyiv on June 26.
Ukraine’s armed forces reported on June 24 that it had intercepted a group of six enemy soldiers near the P-66 road, which runs west from the occupied city of Luhansk and forms part of the front line in the area.
Ukraine’s military press service, reporting the incident on June 25, said that two of the enemy soldiers were killed during a firefight with Ukrainian forces. One of those killed was the squad’s commander, a Russian national originally from the city of Kirov, the press service said.
“One Russian citizen is a resident of the Altai Krai (region), which is located more than 3,000 kilometers from eastern Ukraine,” Pidgorny said.
The military press service said the group was armed with two Kalashnikov machine guns, two SVD sniper rifles, two AK-74 assault rifles, and an RPG-26 grenade launcher.
“Documents that indicate that detainees served within the ranks of Russian occupation forces and proof of their Russian origin has been transferred to state security officers of Ukraine for further examination,” Pidgorny said.
Later, on the evening of June 26, the press service of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, the military unit responsible for defending the area along the P-66 road, published a statement on the incident on the unit’s Facebook page.
The statement, quoting the brigade’s commander, Colonel Vladyslav Klochkov, identified the killed squad commander as regular from the Russian army, Captain Alexander Scherbak, going by the codename “Alex”, who also served as a commando instructor.
Under the Russian captain’s command, the enemy group attempted to attack Ukrainian forces near the village of Zhelobok, according to Klochkov.
“Having gained a tactical advantage over the enemy, our servicemen suggested that they surrender, with guarantees for their lives and safety,” the brigade’s statement reads. “The squad commander and a sniper made an attempt to put up armed resistance and were killed in close combat.”
The brigade said that the captured Russian soldier from the Altai Krai Region was 22 years old.
The brigade’s Facebook post also shows images of the enemy soldiers’ weapons captured after the clash. In particular, the brigade said the SVD sniper rifles were made in 1994, and of a type designed and produced exclusively for the Russian army.
The 93rd brigade also said in its Facebook message that it had captured other modern Russian equipment designed for Russian military sabotage groups, but it gave no details.
Based on updated reports, Ukraine’s military officials confirmed that the 22-year-old Russian citizen from Altai was taken prisoner alive. Other four militants were Ukrainian nationals, the defense ministry spokesman Andriy Lysenko told the Kyiv Post on July 3.
Later, the survived Russian citizen was identified as Viktor Ageev, born in 1995 in Barnaul, a contract duty soldier serving at the 22nd GRU Special Forces Brigade based in the city of Bataisk near Rostov-on-Don some 100 kilometers east of Ukraine’s border.
Svetlana Ageeva, the soldier’s mother, told the Russian media outlet Novaya Gazeta on June 30 that Ageev left for the Rostov Oblast to sign a military contract with the army. Later he told the family he was eventually accepted for service and given a first class private rank at the GRU special forces. They stayed in touch via telephone until May 30, Ageeva told media.
In response to the allegation by Ukraine’s military, Russian defense ministry on June 27 denied Ageev’s affiliation to the country’s armed forces, calling him a “volunteering fighter” with the LNR forces instead.
