Russian contract intelligence officer Ageev was captured in the Lugansk region. A Russian military man was captured in eastern Ukraine. The Dark Side of Ukraine
The mother of Viktor Ageev, captured in Ukraine, turned to the Altai branch of the Yabloko party with a request to help find out the fate of her son.
Appeal
I ask for assistance in the release of my son Viktor Aleksandrovich Ageev, born in 1995, who left on March 18, in his words, to serve under a contract in the city of Bataysk, in one of the parts of the Rostov region. From there he called several times, once a week. Last call was on May 30th from the number<...>. However, he did not say anything that he was going to terminate the contract.
He was pleased with the new service and sent an order to confer the next military rank of corporal. Order No. 866 dated May 4, 2017.
Subsequently, on June 27, BBC journalists contacted me and from them I learned that my son was captured on June 24 on the territory of Ukraine.
I contacted the district military registration and enlistment office, the regional military registration and enlistment office for clarification, but no clarification.
I ask for assistance in establishing the reasons why he ended up there, in the conditions of detention in investigative institutions of Ukraine, the possibility of contacting him by phone, Internet, etc., in his release and return home.
Address of deputy Boris Vishnevsky to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation.
The Ukrainian army conducted a special operation on the contact line in the Lugansk region
On Monday, the BBC Russian Service reported that Russian contract soldier Viktor Ageev, born in 1995, was captured by the Ukrainian military in the Lugansk region. This information was confirmed to the publication by sources in the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. In addition, the mother, Svetlana Ageeva, recognized her son’s documents in photographs that sources provided to the BBC.
According to the BBC Russian Service, scout Ageev was captured on June 24 near the village of Zhelobok, Slavyanoserbsk region, as a result of a clash between fighters of the 93rd separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a reconnaissance group of the 4th mechanized brigade of the 2nd army corps of the self-proclaimed “Luhansk People’s Republic" (LPR).
As noted in the BBC, Ageev announced his entry into contract service on the social network VKontakte, where he was registered under a different name. In addition, on Odnoklassniki he published several photographs with military intelligence symbols, as well as several photographs of himself in positions with weapons and without identification marks. Former colleagues of Ageev told the BBC that in 2015-2016 he served in a communications regiment in Novocherkassk, Rostov region, and after his dismissal “he went to serve as a contract in military intelligence.”
According to his mother, Ageev signed the contract on March 18, 2017. The new place of service was Bataysk, Rostov region. Again, according to the BBC, the 22nd separate guards special forces brigade of the GRU is stationed there.
Russian authorities have repeatedly asserted that Russian military personnel are not taking part in hostilities in eastern Ukraine. And in this case, the Ministry of Defense stated: “According to the registration data of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Viktor Ageev served in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, after which he duly retired to the reserve in May 2016. Information about Viktor Ageev’s alleged subsequent military service under contract in the Russian Armed Forces is a fabrication of Ukrainian propagandists.”
It must be said that the data from Ukrainian sources regarding the clash, which resulted, in particular, in the capture of Ageev, is contradictory. In particular, in a post on Facebook, the editor of the publication “Censor” Yuri Butusov wrote: “The enemy patrol was destroyed with knives - the 93rd brigade is implementing the Minsk agreements on the Bakhmut highway<…>On June 24, soldiers of the 20th motorized infantry battalion discovered an enemy reconnaissance group that was reconnaissance of our positions. Having discovered the enemy and using the factor of surprise, the fighters of the 20th battalion destroyed two mercenaries with edged weapons, and captured four.”
At the same time, the commander of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Colonel Vladislav Klochkov, stated in an official statement that “on June 24, the reconnaissance group of the reconnaissance company of the 4th mechanized brigade of the 2nd Army Corps of the self-proclaimed terrorist organization “LPR” under the leadership of a career Russian officer, Captain Alexander Shcherba Aleksandrovich (call sign “Alex”), who, in addition, acted as a reconnaissance company instructor, moved from the area of the village of Zhelobok into the depths of the positions of the 93rd Separate Guards Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to conduct sabotage and reconnaissance activities. These intentions were promptly discovered by units of our military unit. Having bypassed the enemy and having a tactical advantage, our servicemen invited the enemy to lay down their arms without a fight, guaranteeing life and safety. The group commander and the sniper attempted armed resistance and were eliminated in close fire combat, but not with knives, axes or spears, as some media reported. The rest - a sapper, a sniper and two machine gunners - were detained. One of them is a 22-year-old citizen of the Russian Federation, a resident of the Altai Territory.”
It remains unclear from this report how Captain Shcherba's identity and affiliation with the Russian army was established if he was killed and his body remained on the battlefield.
The “LPR” confirms the fact of a clash, the death of two servicemen and the capture of four more people. At the same time, Ageev’s affiliation with the Russian army is denied. As “official representative of the People’s Militia of the LPR” Andrey Marochko stated, “a serviceman of the People’s Militia, Corporal Viktor Ageev, who is currently in captivity, voluntarily joined the ranks of the People’s Militia of the LPR.”
Video from the press conference of the military leadership of the “LPR” link and footage from the scene of the clash. 18+
Sources of Novaya Gazeta name the names of other prisoners besides Ageev. These are natives of Severodonetsk (Lugansk region) Daniil Gladkov And Andrey Stoyanov, and also a native of Lugansk Bogdan Wenger. The names of the victims were announced during the press conference by forensic expert Denis Musin. According to him, “On June 26, an examination of the bodies of two servicemen was carried out in the Stakhanovsky forensic medical examination department. Shcherby Alexander Alexandrovich, born 1978, Suponin Alexander Andreevich, born 1999
When examining Shcherba's corpse, the following bodily injuries were established: multiple bruises and abrasions of the head, torso and limbs, fractures of the bones of the facial skeleton, a fracture of the left shoulder, three stab wounds to the chest, 12 bullet wounds to the torso and limbs. Serviceman Alexander Andreevich Suponin had physical injuries in the form of multiple bruises and abrasions of the head, torso and limbs, fractured ribs on both sides, a bullet wound in the abdomen, a gunshot wound in the chest, as well as gunshot bullet wounds in the head, two in the left temporal region and one in the occipital region. All injuries were intravital, hence the conclusion that people experienced agony and torture during the infliction of bodily harm.”
The results of the forensic examination contradict the version of death as a result of a clash and rather testify to the fact that Shcherba and Suponin were subjected to torture during interrogation. Novaya Gazeta’s sources also draw attention to the fact that those killed and captured were not DRGs, but were on duty at the observation post. It is characteristic that among the four prisoners, only Ageev was in military uniform, the rest were dressed in different ways: a blue T-shirt and black pants, shorts and a T-shirt, camouflage pants and a black T-shirt. In addition, in addition to personal small arms, they were armed with a machine gun, SVD rifle, and LNG grenade launcher. Such weapons are not suitable for conducting sabotage and reconnaissance operations, but specifically for protecting a stronghold observation post.
Thus, according to our sources, Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters managed to disarm and capture an enemy group at a stronghold observation point, not near Zhelobok, but near Znamenka (this is another settlement in the Slavyanoserbsk region).
The reason for the aggravation of the situation in the gray zone between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the positions of the “LPR People’s Militia” could be the fact that on June 3, Colonel of the National Guard of Ukraine Alexander Boyko went missing during a clash. Neither side confirms the fact of his capture, however, if he is really alive and is on the territory of the “LPR,” negotiations may be held to exchange him for the military personnel who were captured on June 24.
A journalist from a German publication writes that for Kyiv, Ageev is yet another proof that Russia is directly involved in the war.
Officially, Russia is not a party to the conflict in Donbass. Soldiers like Viktor Ageev actually do not exist. Now he was captured by the Ukrainian army- and speaks for the first time.
Christina Hebel writes about this in her article “The Soldier Who Isn’t There,” published on the website of Der Spiegel.
They are hostages of the war in eastern Ukraine: hundreds of militants and civilians who are in prisons of the Ukrainian SBU and the so-called pro-Russian “Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics.” Tough political negotiations are underway about their exchange. Now we are talking about Viktor Ageev.
The 21-year-old guy was captured by the Ukrainian military near Lugansk on June 24; he fought in a separatist brigade. Ukrainian television showed a man sitting on the floor, his eyes blindfolded with yellow tape.
For Kyiv, Ageev is yet another proof that Russia is directly involved in the war in eastern Ukraine - and is helping the separatists not only with weapons, but also sending soldiers. NATO and the West also talk of hundreds, if not thousands, of Russian soldiers in the region, which the Kremlin denies.
Often men remain nameless; officially there are no soldiers like Ageev. Even if their relatives say the opposite, like his mother Svetlana Ageeva, friends and former colleagues. They claim that Ageev signed a contract with the Russian army. The Defense Ministry in Moscow denies this: Ageev was fired in May 2016 after finishing his military service, officials say.
"Yes, I have a contract"
Now the young man decided to speak for the first time, he answered questions from a correspondent of the Ukrainian television news service TSN. It is unclear how the interview was conducted. Ageev briefly answered many questions. The channel says the Russian fighter agreed because, in his opinion, Russia betrayed him. Ageev himself did not say this.
“Yes, I have a contract,” Ageev confirmed in a conversation. He imprisoned him for a year; there was no talk of sending him to Ukraine at that time. Its unit number is 65246. These are anti-aircraft troops stationed in Novocherkassk, in southern Russia. Ageev's unit number was already reported by the BBC; two of his former colleagues named it.
"Service is service"
Just four days later, he was brought from Novocherkassk to Lugansk, and then to the southwest of Ukraine to Alchevsk, Ageev reports. He volunteered for service in eastern Ukraine. He doesn't know why he was sent there so quickly. "I didn't ask. Service is service."
Why exactly to the east of Ukraine? I wanted to help the “Lugansk People’s Republic,” Ageev said. He decided to deploy not only because of money, but also out of patriotism, Ageev said. "They said the Nazis were bombing the local population." The young man is referring to the propaganda of Russian state television. They never tire of constantly discrediting the government and army in Kyiv, calling them a fascist junta.
He went to Lugansk with his commander. Ageev did not say how they ended up there. He talks about a flight, which, first of all, can mean flying. For his military service he received 23,000 rubles (about 330 euros) plus 15,000 rubles (about 215 euros) in cash for his deployment in Lugansk.
His story suggests that he had two contracts: one in Novocherkassk in the Russian army, one in the so-called “Luhansk People's Republic”.
Mother's call for help
Svetlana Ageeva told Spiegel online that her son called once a month, but never talked about the details of the military deployment. Ageev, who has a different name on his VKontakte page, traveled to Rostov-on-Don in March to sign a contract with the army. The family lives in a village near Barnaul in the Altai region, about 3,600 kilometers from Lugansk. “I never thought that my son was in Ukraine,” says the English teacher.
She asked Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for help. “No one has responded yet,” she said. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on June 29 that Russia would take measures to protect Ageev's rights. Peskov did not speak about the status of the young man.
The mother of Russian soldier Viktor Ageev, captured by the Ukrainian army in the Lugansk region, asked Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to pardon her son. In a video message published on July 12 on the Novaya Gazeta website, Svetlana Ageeva says that she “is still in the dark” and “does not understand” how Viktor Ageev ended up on Ukrainian territory. Military correspondent of the Ukrainian TV channel 1+1 Andrey Tsaplienko, the only journalist who has so far managed to communicate with Ageev, doubts the veracity of her words: in an interview with Tsaplienko, Ageev admitted that he called his mother from a Ukrainian mobile number with the code +380. The journalist is sure that his mother could not help but notice this.
The Russian Ministry of Defense still denies that Victor Ageev was a career Russian military man - although in an interview he admits that he signed a one-year contract four days before being sent to Ukraine. Ageev was captured on June 24 in the so-called “gray zone” between the positions of the Ukrainian army and the territory occupied by the separatists. Together with him, three people were taken prisoner, citizens of Ukraine, residents of the so-called “LPR”. Another Russian Alexander Shcherba, believed by Ukrainian authorities to be the commander of the reconnaissance group that included Ageev, was killed in the shootout. In the same shootout, an 18-year-old native of the Lugansk region died, with whom Shcherba tried to shield himself from the fire.
Soldiers of the 93rd separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces claim that all those detained and killed in the clash were members of the reconnaissance group of the 4th mechanized brigade of the 2nd army corps of the "LPR". The authorities of the unrecognized “people’s republic” call them members of the “people’s militia” - just as was the case with the Russians Alexander Alexandrov And Evgeniy Erofeev, detained in the same Lugansk region 2 years ago, in the spring of 2015, and then exchanged for a Ukrainian serviceman Nadezhda Savchenko.
Andrei Tsaplienko told Radio Liberty about his impressions of communicating with Viktor Ageev, about what seemed strange to him in the soldier’s words, and compared Ageev with other Russians detained at different times on suspicion of involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine - Alexander Alexandrov, Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Valery Gratov, who was arrested last week, whom Ukrainian authorities call a colonel in the Russian Armed Forces and one of the closest associates of the former separatist leaders.
– The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Tuesday that Ageev’s interview with your TV channel contains signs of editing with a selection of only words needed by Ukrainian propagandists. In addition, according to the Russian military department, Ageev could not conclude a contract in military unit No. 65246 in Novocherkassk, since in this unit there is supposedly no command authorized to conclude contracts. What can you answer to this?
– Our interview with Ageev lasted more than an hour. Before this interview, he and I also talked for about an hour and a half, communicated, tried to establish some kind of contact. The interview did not take place in a pre-trial detention center; we were not allowed to talk to him there, but we were given a place in one of the government institutions that had nothing to do with the Security Service of Ukraine or the penitentiary authorities of Ukraine. They brought him there and gave him the opportunity to spend time with him and communicate, to understand what kind of person he was. We asked for the opportunity to communicate with him almost immediately after his arrest in the Lugansk region. Unfortunately, at the very beginning, when he was handed over to the Security Service of Ukraine, we were not given this opportunity, so we waited until we received permission for this interview. We received permission last Friday, and then we had the opportunity to spend several hours with him and talk. The full version of the interview in text form is posted on our website. Anyone, including functionaries of the Russian Ministry of Defense, can familiarize themselves with it. Of course, it was impossible to post more than an hour of recording in full in the television version, and we, naturally, chose only those moments that relate, strictly speaking, to the topic of Ageev signing a contract with military unit No. 65246, as he told us in an interview. Command elsewhere? Well, it is not located on Mars and not even in Moscow, but in Rostov-on-Don, just 60 kilometers from Novocherkassk. Where exactly did he sign the contract, in Novocherkassk or Rostov... Unfortunately, at the moment when we wrote the interview, I simply could not imagine that the command of this unit was in a different location. If I had known this, then, of course, I would have asked him where exactly, in what city he signed the contract. But he says: “I signed the contract in military unit 65246.” And he repeated this several times during the interview.
– How convincing did you personally find Ageev’s words that he is an active Russian contract soldier?
– You know, at first, as far as I know, he generally refused to communicate with journalists. We were informed about this. Then we were informed that he finally agreed. Apparently, this is connected with his status, with the fact that Russia is abandoning him, and he understands that he should not spend the next 15 years in a Ukrainian prison, but should appeal, if possible, through the media, so that he can be heard and somehow thus decided his fate. To be honest, we ourselves were very surprised by what he told us. Because even in communication with our military, who captured him, we detected some doubt that he was a Russian contract soldier. They said: “Yes, perhaps he is a contract soldier, but we have no such evidence.” But the second Russian, Shcherba, who died, who was the main target of Ukrainian intelligence officers, is 99.9% a career Russian military man. Our Ukrainian military told us this. The fact is that Shcherba took part in the events related to the annexation of Crimea, he is a close associate of Girkin, he was involved in instructing units of illegal armed groups in eastern Ukraine, he is a very professional person. Part of the video that the Ukrainian special services managed to obtain (from Shcherba’s phone. – Note RS), they gave it to us, and we showed it on air. We analyzed him for quite a long time, and we understand that this person is really very, very professional. After this operation, after the capture of this group, we were informed that the main target was precisely this person - instructor Alex, Shcherba. As the military describes the battle, they first captured part of the group in which Ageev was, four people, they surrendered without a fight, without firing a single shot. They surrendered, they were transported to the location of the 93rd brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and there they conducted, let’s say, the first survey. The questions asked to Ageev and the other prisoners concerned exclusively the military situation. This was all done on the record, he told certain details of the location of their unit, the so-called 4th separate motorized rifle brigade of the people's militia "LPR", where who is located, where what positions are, who is the brigade commander, who is their company commander.
Shcherba very professionally covered himself behind this young guy, Alexander Suponin, and Suponin died first
Actually, this was an interrogation of a prisoner conducted by the Ukrainian military. While this interrogation was being carried out, part of the group remained in the position occupied by the militants, and they waited for Shcherba to approach along with a young boy Alexander Suponin, a Ukrainian citizen, he was from the village of Rovenki, as far as I know, he was 18 years old. These two were also offered to surrender, but they categorically refused. Moreover, Shcherba tried to divert the attention of the Ukrainian military, uttered the following phrase: “What are you talking about, I brought you vodka! Why give up...” This is a very correct move from a psychological point of view, he apparently knew the peculiarities of psychology very well, and at that moment, trying to somehow switch the enemy’s attention, he opened fire. Naturally, the Ukrainian military opened fire in response, there were more of them, they were waiting, they had placed secrets, and in general, Shcherba had no chance to escape. But again, our military says that Shcherba very professionally covered himself with this young guy, Alexander Suponin, and Suponin died first. Apparently, Shcherba had some escape options, he thought through them, but they did not work. And - frankly speaking, unfortunately - he died. If he had remained alive, perhaps we would have learned much more interesting facts about the presence of the Russian military in eastern Ukraine.
– Did the soldiers of the 93rd brigade know that they would face a clash with the Russian military?
– Before the group was preparing to carry out the operation (and it was prepared for quite a long time, it was more than one week), they knew for sure that a Russian, a serious Russian military man, was there, and this was Alexander Shcherba, and he was alone. He was the main target, the main target of this operation. But if we talk about Ageev, whether there is another Russian in the group - the fighters probably didn’t know that.
- Ageev, apparently, misled his mother by telling her that he was serving in the GRU, but in fact he signed a contract with the same part of the military space forces in Novocherkassk, where he served in military service. When you interviewed him, did you notice any oddities or inconsistencies in his words?
– From this interview we learned facts that were, frankly speaking, shocking and quite strange for us. For example, he says that he signed a contract with his unit in March, and literally four days later he was sent east. To my question that it looked quite strange, why such a fast dispatch, he said: “What’s strange here? Nothing strange, there was a dispatch, there was a flight - and they sent me. They pay money, this is a service, I don’t ask unnecessary questions, I’m on my way.” , and that's it." But at the same time, there are certain contradictions in his words. He says that he himself wrote a report about sending him to Ukraine. That is, he first concluded a contract with his unit No. 65246, he confirmed this several times in an interview, and already in the status of an active Russian military serviceman he turned to the commander with the desire to go to Ukraine.
The strange thing is that, having signed the contract, he immediately wrote a report and went to Ukraine
The strange thing is that, having signed the contract, he immediately wrote a report and went to Ukraine, because this supposedly coincided with his personal wishes. Although, speaking about Ukraine and his motivation, he cannot clearly formulate, in fact, why he was going. He says that in his contract, which remained in Russia, the amount is indicated - 23 thousand rubles, allegedly this amount was assigned to him by the contract, and he received 15 thousand rubles in the occupied territory of the Lugansk region, for a total of about 38 thousand rubles . And he admits that one of the things that motivated him for this decision to go to war was precisely money, material interest.
– Where could the main document in this story be now – his contract? In Russia, in Alchevsk or somewhere else?
– One of the copies, according to him, remained in Russia, in military unit No. 65246, and another one was in his personal belongings in Alchevsk. Where the reconnaissance company was located, where the 4th brigade in which he served was located. He says that supposedly in some briefcase in his personal belongings a copy of the contract was preserved and that not a word was said about Ukraine.
- On video TV channel 1+1 Ageev is shown in the first minutes after his capture. He's on his knees, his eyes covered with yellow tape. Ukrainian soldiers can be seen giving him a drag on a cigarette. Ageev said something about whether torture or other measures of physical coercion were used against him after being captured?
– It was the filming of the reconnaissance group of the 93rd brigade, which captured Ageev and his comrades. He literally said the following: they were in the so-called “dachas” - this is a gray zone, very close to Ukrainian positions, there should be no military personnel there at all, according to the Minsk agreements. But there was a reconnaissance group there, the senior of which was Alexander Shcherba. They were armed with sniper rifles, there were two sappers in the group to cover the engineer, there were small arms, there were special weapons, there were mines. That is, they were preparing for some task. Ageev doesn’t know or doesn’t say which one. They identified this group, found out that Shcherba was there, set the task - first of all, take Shcherba prisoner, and moved into position. They've been watching this house for quite some time. We watched for so long that we noticed a certain relaxation of this group. That is, they felt relaxed, unpunished, I mean Shcherba’s group. They waited until Shcherba and Suponin left the group’s location, and then waited for what Ageev was talking about: “I went to the toilet, I was without a weapon. I saw people with weapons, they ordered me to lie down, asked: “Where is your weapon?” I didn’t have any weapons..." And that’s it, he lay down. Then they approached the house and said: “Guys, if you don’t leave the house, don’t come out without weapons, we’ll shoot your comrade.” This is how he tells it. Those three decided to give up and the three of them left. And the boys were taken and quite calmly taken to the territory that was under the control of the 93rd brigade. The rest of the group waited for Suponin and Shcherba, and a battle took place that lasted about 10 minutes. Here is Ageev’s story. He says that no physical force was used against him. Moreover, I will say that we asked several questions about whether physical force was used against him, and he answered in the negative. At least from the way he carries himself, behaves, how he looks, what he is wearing, I can judge that they treat him with enough respect, as respectful as one can treat a person who is accused under Article 258.3 “Participation in terrorist activities.” activities".
– Was anyone else present in the room other than the operator during the interview?
– There was me, there was an operator, and there were two employees, as I understand it, of the Security Service of Ukraine. But this is an administrative building in one of the cities in eastern Ukraine, it has nothing to do with the security forces, it was provided to us so that we could simply communicate. He was not in handcuffs, no one told him what to say. We were simply given the opportunity to talk, and until that hour we talked with him about general topics, about his home, about his mother, what he did, what he did for a living, what he reads, what he loves. I was just wondering what kind of person he was, how he lived before this war.
– What kind of person is he, what impression did you get from his answers to your questions?
– A fairly simple guy, from a very poor family, from the Russian province. Despite the fact that his mother is a teacher, he has serious gaps in his education. For example, he is convinced that Altai is the largest subject of the Russian Federation. He finished his military service, tried to earn money, he says that it was almost impossible to find work either in Altai, or in Moscow, or in Khabarovsk. He traveled around, pushed around, said: “It seems like I’m a welder, I have a welding diploma, but work experience is required everywhere, but I have no experience. And I was recruited to go to a construction site in Seoul, South Korea, they promised a big salary and a month work. Two weeks later, they asked me from there, to put it mildly, without paying my full salary." Here is a typical guy from the Russian outback, unsettled, who doesn’t quite understand what he wants from life. This is my impression. Well, apparently, since there are quite a lot of people like him, this is such a favorable, fertile environment for recruiting, let’s say, cannon fodder to the east of Ukraine.
As far as I know, his mother now wants to come here. Our guys, who volunteer in Internet intelligence and social networks, say that my mother had an extremely anti-Ukrainian attitude before this. “Help Putin”, “Well done Putin”, “Ukrainians are Banderaites”, “may stones fall from the sky on your heads, Ukrainians”, and so on. I think she was aware that her son was in Ukraine. I'll tell you why. In the first interview she gave, she said such an interesting thing: that he “rarely called because it was expensive.” I understand that in Russia there is domestic roaming, but it is inexpensive. And here we ask the same question to Ageev. “Did you call your mom often?” He says: “No, not often, they spoke quickly because it was expensive.” - “What phone did you call from, Russian?” - “From a local company, the Phoenix company. This is a separatist company, but since it does not have its own code, they have a Ukrainian code, +380. He called from this phone, and my mother saw this code. I say: “Well, my mother saw it.” this code from which you called?" - “Well, yes, I saw it." - “And she didn’t realize that you were abroad?” - “Well, probably, she didn’t understand.” That’s what I doubt. I think , that she also understood everything perfectly well, where he was and what he was doing. But: when this unpleasant situation for her happened, she didn’t go to government agencies, she didn’t go to this unit, she didn’t go to the Ministry of Defense. She she went to opposition journalists, she went to foreign journalists. She went to those people who can help her. She has an understanding of what is happening, but she continues to play out this story that “we knew nothing.” I think that people in Russia know everything perfectly and understand perfectly well where their sons are fighting.
Svetlana Ageeva’s address to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko:
– You communicated not only with Ageev, but also with Valery Gratov, who was detained while trying to enter Transnistria, whom the Ukrainian authorities call a colonel of the Russian Armed Forces and one of the key figures in the events in the Donetsk region from the very beginning of the so-called “Russian Spring.” Can you compare your feelings from talking with Gratov and with Ageev?
– I have a very difficult impression from communicating with Gratov.
- Why?
If Ageev is a situational opponent of Ukraine, then Gratov is an ideological one
– It seems to me that if Ageev is lying, maybe 10%, in some places he is trying to present himself better, in others he is afraid to say an extra word, not understanding what consequences await him after this, then Gratov is 10% telling the truth. If Ageev, let’s say, is a situational opponent of Ukraine, then Gratov is an ideological one. And one moment. From the first minute Ageev began to talk about the fact that he is a Russian serviceman, that he signed a contract with this unit No. 65246. I asked him a question: “Russia is abandoning you. Where do you advise your mother to go so that she can prove your status and force the Russian authorities to take care of your fate?" And then he says: “Here is the unit - 65246, here there, there, I’m a contract soldier, I signed for a year...” - and so on. That is, he almost immediately started talking about it, as soon as he learned that his return to Russia might take a long time. But Gratov is a more experienced person, and he understands how valuable he is for Russia, he understands that he will be changed in any case. No matter what sentence he is given, no matter what he is accused of, he is valuable enough and will be exchanged. This is not a motive or an argument for him that he will receive a 15-year sentence in Ukraine, but in the end he will be changed. The other side of the coin is important for Ukraine - that perhaps one of our political prisoners could be exchanged for this person, one of those people who in Russia are completely groundlessly accused of terrorism, people who have been through torture, these are Sentsov and Karpyuk , and Kolchenko, and Panov... Perhaps some of these people will be able to be pulled back to their homeland. Still, Gratov’s motivation is somewhat different. And they treat Gratov quite normally. He is in a pre-trial detention center, and all his requests are being fulfilled. He was there, as far as I know, complaining about the food, that his mattress was uncomfortable, they delivered him a comfortable mattress, and so on. I doubt that our citizens who were captured in the “DPR” and “LPR”, or those prisoners in Russia, are treated the same way.
– Is the way Gratov behaves more similar to the way Alexandrov and Erofeev behaved?
- Yes, yes, even smarter. Because Aleksandrov and Erofeev were very scared at first, they immediately admitted that they were Russian soldiers, “don’t shoot, don’t kill us.” Then, after talking with a lawyer from Russia, they took the position: “Everything I said before is not true.” And they even openly mocked the investigation, the trial, and behaved quite brazenly. Gratov does not behave arrogantly, I can say, he behaves very restrained, sometimes he says something pitifully, sometimes he remembers something, he communicates in a friendly way with the investigators, he talked with us in a friendly way, without a camera. But he is clearly lying, manipulating, denying everything. Sometimes when you talk to him, you somehow relax him and he forgets where he is. Then some things slip through that indicate that he was in eastern Ukraine for a reason, that he took part in the hostilities. This is evidenced by the document that we posted on the TSN website, a certificate to the State Duma, which was given to him by the so-called commander of the so-called military unit 08805 “DPR”.
Unfortunately, this is a very vile war in which Ukraine found itself face to face with a huge monster. And this monster sometimes just plays with Ukraine like a cat and a mouse, realizing that no one will punish him, that you can lie, that you can play like this, press somewhere, release somewhere, raise the level of aggressiveness of military operations somewhere, somewhere, on the contrary, to press him. Unfortunately, this story is with us for a long time.
– None of the Russian diplomats have yet tried to establish contact with either Ageev or Gratov?
– I can’t say about it. In any case, these people are citizens of Russia, in any case we have diplomatic relations with Russia, in any case, at a minimum, the consul should appear or at least inquire about the fate of both Ageev and Gratov. Whether they were interested, I don’t know. At the time of my communication with Ageev, as far as I know, he did not have a consul. And at the time of my communication with Gratov, he also did not have a consul. Although the lawyer communicates with him, as far as I know, with Gratov, and no one limits him in this. I don’t know who Ageev’s lawyer is and whether he communicates with a lawyer, but I think that since the investigative process is ongoing, most likely he has a public lawyer, he should have a state lawyer.
– Does Gratov also have state government?
– No, Gratov does not have a government lawyer, Gratov has a highly paid lawyer. I don’t know who pays.
photo - odnoklassniki.ru
In the Lugansk region, Russian serviceman Viktor Ageev, who was drafted in the Altai Territory and served under a contract, was captured.
Interlocutors in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the command of the 93rd separate mechanized brigade of the armed forces of Ukraine reported this to the BBC.
Viktor Ageev’s mother, his friends and former colleagues confirmed to the BBC Russian Service that after military service, he remained to serve in the army under a contract that he signed in March 2017.
Scout Viktor Ageev, born in 1995, was captured on June 24 near the village of Zhelobok, Slavyanoserbsky district, Lugansk region, as a result of a clash between soldiers of the 93rd separate mechanized brigade and a reconnaissance group of the 4th mechanized brigade of the 2nd army corps of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (LPR).
This was reported to the BBC by sources in the 93rd Brigade and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
Brigade commander Vladislav Klochkov, commenting on the details of the battle with the “LPR sabotage and reconnaissance group,” said that the commander of this group was killed during the clash. Ukrainian media reported that the dead man was “career Russian officer” Alexander Shcherbak.
Ukrainian military personnel also reported that four LPR fighters were captured, including “a 22-year-old citizen of the Russian Federation, a resident of the Altai Territory.”
The website of the Ukrainian TV channel "24" reported the name of the detainee - Viktor Ageev. This information was confirmed to the BBC by interlocutors in the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and the 93rd Brigade, providing photographs of his documents.
Photo of the detainee’s passport and military ID also published Journalist of the Ukrainian TV channel ICTV Yulia Kiriyenko is on her Facebook page.
The passport was issued by the local migration service department in May 2016. The military ID was signed by the military commissar for the Topchikhinsky and Kalmansky districts of the Altai Territory, Konstantin Eller.
The commissariat for the Topchikhinsky and Kalmansky district, where the BBC Russian Service contacted for comment, offered to send a letter of request. “We don’t use fax, we don’t have Internet addresses,” said the officer on duty at the commissariat.
As follows from the data on the military ID, in 2015 Viktor Ageev received secondary vocational education at the Altai State College as a third-class electric and gas welder.
The BBC college education department confirmed that they remember such a student, but found it difficult to say how to contact him.
As the BBC learned from two former colleagues of Viktor Ageev, after graduating from Altai State College, in 2015-2016 he served in military unit 65246, stationed in Novocherkassk, Rostov region.
“We served with him in the communications regiment,” said one of the former colleagues on condition of anonymity. “He retired in the summer, and I at the end of 2016. Then he went to serve as a contract in military intelligence, but he wanted to sign the contract in another unit, and I don’t know exactly how things turned out for him.”
Viktor Ageev himself announced that he had entered contract service on his page on the social network VKontakte on April 1. On the social network, he maintained an account not under his last name (the authenticity of the account was confirmed by Ageev’s acquaintances) and was there, in particular, in the group “4th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the NM LPR.”
There, as well as under his own name on his page on the Odnoklassniki network, he published in April and May several photographs of himself with military intelligence symbols, as well as several photographs of himself in positions with weapons and without identification marks.
The minimum contract period for privates in the Russian army is two to three years, for officers and warrant officers - five years. Late last year, a law was passed allowing military personnel to enter into "short-term contracts" but only during "extraordinary circumstances" or during operations "to maintain or restore peace."
In personal correspondence with one of his former colleagues, which was reviewed by the BBC Russian Service, Viktor Ageev, when asked if he was in Ukraine, replied: “Yes, in Ukraine.” And in response to a friend’s clarifying question about what he was doing there, he wrote: “Contract worker. They pay enough.”
The BBC Russian service contacted Viktor Ageev’s mother, Svetlana, who identified her son’s documents in the documents at the disposal of the Ukrainian armed forces.
“I’m worried because he hasn’t contacted me for a very long time,” said Svetlana Ageeva. “The last time he called me was on May 30.”
According to her, on March 18, 2017, her son signed a contract; her son’s new place was Bataysk, Rostov region, where the 22nd separate guards special-purpose brigade of the GRU of the Russian General Staff was stationed.
Svetlana Ageeva said that no one from the command has yet contacted the family of the captured serviceman.
“I myself didn’t write down the unit number anywhere, so I don’t even know where to call,” she explained. “We tried to join a group on VKontakte for relatives of those serving in Bataysk, but so far we haven’t found out anything. He called himself.” We only have one or two trips from there."
In response to a clarifying question whether her son said that he would have to carry out combat missions on the territory of Ukraine, Svetlana Ageeva replied: “He [said] in a veiled manner. But I was fooling myself. It seemed that since I was near the border, my thoughts were bad. And he said: we study, we study, we work, we work.”
According to interlocutors of the BBC Russian Service in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the captured serviceman is currently transferred to the Security Service of Ukraine.
The Russian Ministry of Defense did not comment on the BBC on Tuesday about the news that contract soldier Viktor Ageev was captured on Ukrainian territory.
Russian authorities have repeatedly stated that Russian military personnel are not taking part in hostilities in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian Ministry of Defense denies information about “contract soldier Ageev”. The Ukrainian army and SBU systematically report the capture of Russians; Moscow, as a rule, remains silent in response
Russian contract soldier Viktor Ageev was captured during battles with units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Ukrainian and Russian media reported on Wednesday, June 28.
According to the Ukrainian side, the capture of the Russian intelligence officer occurred on June 24 near the village of Zhelobok, Lugansk region, during the battle of the 93rd separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with reconnaissance of the 4th mechanized brigade of the 2nd Army Corps of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR).
Evidence and rumors
Ukrainian journalist Yulia Kiriyenko published on her Facebook page photographs of Viktor Ageev’s passport and military ID, as well as a photograph of the weapon that, according to her, was confiscated from the captured intelligence officers.
“Now we have Victor. And not only him. This is one of the DRG group (sabotage and reconnaissance group - Trud. ru), who was recently detained by our guys from the 93-q brigade near Zhelobok (Lugansk region). They are not cadets at all, as some are trying to convince. Although... it’s a common practice to abandon one’s own,” Kiriyenko wrote.
According to the BBC, after the intelligence officer was captured, he was handed over to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also officially confirmed the capture of the Russian military.
It is reported that journalists managed to contact the soldier’s mother and former colleagues. As a result, the media learned that Viktor, who was called up from Altai in 2015-2106, served in a unit stationed in Novocherkassk. According to the soldier’s mother, on March 18 of this year, Victor signed a contract, after which he was sent to the city of Bataysk, Rostov region, where the 22nd separate guards special-purpose brigade of the GRU of the Russian General Staff is stationed.
Victor’s colleagues, whom the reporters managed to contact, also said that he had gone to serve under a contract in intelligence, but could not name the part. “Yes, in Ukraine. Contractor. They pay enough,” one of them allegedly said.
Silence of the Motherland
Initially, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not comment on reports of the soldier’s capture. The prisoner was “took over” by the plenipotentiary representative of the LPR in the Minsk negotiation group, Vladislav Deinego. “We checked the information about the persons captured by Kyiv. These guys are LPR contract soldiers and are not Russians at all. They are local, our guys,” he told reporters.
Observers noted that Moscow prefers not to recognize the participation of the Russian military in hostilities on the side of the self-proclaimed republics. So, back in March 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that there are no Russian special forces in Crimea, and the local militia is acting against the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Later, he nevertheless admitted that professional military personnel were operating on the territory of the peninsula.
In the summer of 2014, the Ukrainian military detained a group of ten Kostroma paratroopers on their territory. According to the official Russian version, the group crossed the state border by accident. In August of the same year, Ukraine returned all detainees.
In May 2015, the SBU announced the detention of Evgeny Erofeev and Alexander Alexandrov. The Russians were captured in the Kyiv-controlled part of the Lugansk region and, according to the Ukrainian version, were career employees of the GRU.
The Russian military never officially recognized the detainees as “ours.” The Russians spent a year in Ukrainian dungeons and were sentenced to 13 and 14 years in prison. In May 2016, serviceman Nadezhda Savchenko. Both Russians were brought home by the plane of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who returned Savchenko to Ukraine on a return flight.
"The fiction of propagandists"
Later, from the Russian Ministry of Defense, it was with Ageev.
“Viktor Ageev never served under a contract in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” the department’s press service said. - According to the registration data of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Ageev served in the RF Armed Forces, after which he duly retired to the reserve in May 2016. Information about Viktor Ageev’s alleged subsequent entry into military service under a contract is a fabrication of Ukrainian propagandists,” the ministry’s representatives added.
The Ministry of Defense also explained that the military ID would have contained a record of Ageev’s entry into military service under a contract in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. However, “the Ukrainian special services, out of ignorance, did not have time to draw it,” and therefore did not publish photos of other pages of the military ID, but once again used amateurs from the British BBC to spread fake “revelations.”
The dark side of Ukraine
In March of this year, the SBU reported on the detention of nine agents of the Russian GRU in Odessa. “We carried out a multi-step special operation to neutralize the resident network of the Russian special services, which operated in the eastern and southern regions of our state. According to our information, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the RF Armed Forces was directly involved in the creation of this network,” - the office of the head of the SBU, Alexander Tkachuk.
According to the Ukrainian side, the group was led by a female agent.
However, observers note that most Ukrainian reports about the capture of Russian military and intelligence officers are not credible. Representatives of the self-proclaimed republics have repeatedly noted that the Ukrainian security forces “grab just anyone” in order to collect the required number of captured “separatists” and exchange their soldiers and officers for them, who constantly fall into the hands of the DPR and LPR militia.
These accusations were indirectly confirmed by the UN. The special mission conducted an investigation into the existence of secret prisons and faced severe opposition from the SBU. In May 2016, Evans stated that the Ukrainian authorities were hiding the true state of affairs and stopped the mission. Kyiv was subjected to severe criticism from the leadership of the organization. “The Ukrainian Security Service systematically raids and tortures people suspected of being sympathizers with Donbass militias,” the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights told The Times on June 3, 2106. “Kiev’s disrespect for human rights has intensified and become systematic, and this issue needs to be addressed urgently.”
The criticism was also supported by American human rights organizations - Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. They published a joint report in which they provided data on secret SBU prisons in Kharkov, Kramatorsk, Mariupol and Izyum. Human rights activists also published memoirs of former prisoners who spoke about systematic beatings, electric shock torture, rape and threats of reprisals against families.