Prosecutors seek 16-year sentence in Russia’s first-ever case against soldier for ‘voluntary’ surrender to Ukrainian forces

State prosecutors have asked a military court in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to sentence Russian serviceman Roman Ivanishin to 16 years in prison for voluntarily surrendering to Ukrainian troops. According to the newspaper Kommersant, Roman Ivanishin is the first Russian soldier to face criminal prosecution for this offense since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He’s also charged with desertion and attempted voluntary surrender on at least one other occasion.

Ivanishin worked as a mining foreman on Sakhalin Island before he was drafted into Russia’s military. After being deployed to Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Ivanishin was captured and appeared in a video online in June 2023, where he denounced Russia’s invasion and called on Russian soldiers to desert. In January 2024, Ivanishin was among a group of 248 Russian soldiers exchanged for captured Ukrainian troops. 

The authorities opened a criminal case against Ivanishin when he returned to Russia. He maintains his innocence, and his lawyers say prosecutors have presented no evidence that he broke the law.

In April 2024, journalists at Mediazona reported a case file against a soldier accused of voluntary surrender. The case was filed at a lower level of the same military court now hearing Roman Ivanishin’s prosecution. Mediazona described the charges as Russia’s first known enforcement of a criminal statute amendment introduced in September 2022 that raised the penalties for surrendering “voluntarily” to enemy forces.