Former Russian state news employee who was illegally held in basement for suspected desertion makes contact with wife

Ilya Andreyev, a former employee of the Russian state news network Channel One who was reported last week to be illegally detained in a basement by the Russian military, has been released, his wife told Novaya Gazeta Europe on Monday.

“[He called me] from someone else’s phone because they hadn’t given his phone back to him. The situation isn’t completely over, but the most important thing — his release from the basement — has occurred,” she said. She didn’t say where her husband is currently located.

Andreyev quit his job at Channel One after visiting Ukraine’s Chernihiv region in 2022. In September 2023, he signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry because, according to people who know him, he was unable to find work elsewhere. Andreyev’s wife has said that he had no intention of going to war and that he was promised he would be able to stay in Moscow, but he was nonetheless sent to Ukraine almost immediately.

In early November, Andreyev requested 10 days of leave, which commanders from the annexed “Luhansk People’s Republic” denied. On November 22, he contacted his wife and told her he was being taken to the village of Zaitseve in the “Donetsk People’s Republic,” where Russia illegally detains soldiers who refuse to fight in a basement. According to the Telegram channel Astra, at least 17 people were held there along with Andreyev.