Russian defectors

This short post intends to introduce one of the reasons why Ukraine is being able to contain the Russian forces all along the front.

The story was exposed by the Washington Street Journal and explains how and why a young artillery Russian officer started to cooperate with the Ukrainian troops to disrupt the Russian war effort.

You will find a human story, mundane, far from heroic behaviours or without fear. On the contrary, it is about deceit, frustration and despair.

It also exposes that Ukraine counts on an important network of coopted individuals and organizations which support soldiers that want to defect. They feel profoundly Russian, but they despise Putin’s regime and particularly, the invasion of Ukraine. Patriots or traitors?

En español:

En français mit Deutschen Untertiteln:

The young officer could flee Russia after providing the Ukrainian forces with relevant information related to troop movements. It means he cooperated with the Ukrainian intelligence services for months. He finally decided to join the Russian forces fighting against Putin’s troops from Ukraine.

Ukraine also took care of his mother and younger sister, taking them from Russia to Moldova. Later they moved to Ukraine where they met the young officer.

He is not the first known case of an officer defecting Russian armed forces. A helicopter pilot, Maxim Kuzminov, defected taking his helicopter with him. He finally moved to Spain (he was paid $500,000) where he was living in Villajoyosa, a beach town in Alicante province, under a fake Ukrainian identity. He was shot dead allegedly by Russian surrogates.

Many others have been helped and directed to flee to  Lithuania. Many of these cases are not being aired to preserve the security and the activity of these underground networks which are part of the resistance which is active in Russia. What it means is that Russia is not monolithic. There are people in Russia actively working against Putin’s regime. It reflects a more traditional state of war in which the conflict (or special operation for others) is developing.