Russian lieutenant Ivan Korolev illegally crossed the Lithuanian border, managed to get to Vilnius and was detained by Lithuanian border service operatives at the Vilnius bus station on 10 August.
The BBC reported this.
After being detained in Vilnius, the Russian officer was returned to the border checkpoint, where he stayed for another day.
The serviceman served in the military unit 59313-39, the “Joint Strategic Command of the Eastern Military District”. This unit is regularly stationed in the village of Teisin, Khabarovsk Krai.
“On 3 August, I decided to leave the Russian Federation because I did not want to participate in the bloody war that my country had unleashed. I am currently in the Republic of Lithuania, where I have applied for political asylum,” said Ivan Korolev.
“I took part in the war, but I was on the territory of the Russian Federation all this time. I was never on the territory of Ukraine,” the officer said. “We were engaged in supplying Russian troops with ammunition. We received ammunition from all over Russia, from all units, from all arsenals, and distributed it to brigades and units directly in Ukraine.”
The application of the artillery officer, who was the “deputy head of the warehouse of the accounting and operational department of the field artillery depot”, was accepted for consideration on 11 August, and he was sent to the migration centre in Pabrade, where he will stay while the Lithuanian authorities consider his application.
The State Border Guard Service is investigating the circumstances of the deserter’s arrival in Lithuania. It does not specify whether Korolev entered the country illegally, across the state border or through other Schengen states. According to TV3, this is the second time the officer has been in Lithuania, having previously been rejected as an illegal migrant. The Border Guard Service still needs to confirm this information.
A similar case was recorded in June when a Russian Air Force pilot, Lieutenant Dmitry Mishov, arrived in Lithuania. The Russian pilot applied to the Migration Department for asylum, and his application was registered.
More and more Russian military are unhappy with Putin’s senseless, unjustified, unprovoked, cruel and failed war. They seek ways to flee the country. In addition to the internal conflicts, it shakes the weakened Putin regime.
