Ten soldiers in a village in Russia’s Novosibirsk region left their unit without permission, local officials reported on Wednesday. At least of the servicemen have already been detained.
“They left the territory of the work settlement of Kochenyovo by taxi over a period of 30 minutes. No crimes were committed in the district,” wrote Yevgeny Antipov, the head of the region’s Kochenyovsky district, on Telegram.
According to the local news site NGS.ru, most of the soldiers who fled are residents of Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar region, and some of them had reportedly “left military units” before. The outlet’s source said that six of the escapees traveled to the Kemerovo region.
Sign up for Meduza’s daily newsletter
A digest of Russia’s investigative reports and news analysis. If it matters, we summarize it.