A Russian citizen with a “separatist past” has announced plans to defect to the Ukrainian side – but no one seems to know what’s in store for him once he enters Ukraine-held territory.
“I want to
fight against the Russian authorities, not only to protect Ukraine but also on
behalf of all the Russians who died fighting in eastern Ukraine because of the
stupidity being shown on Russian state-run television,” said the 41-year-old Russian,
who spoke on the condition that only his nickname, Okhotnik (hunter), be used. He said he feared he would be stopped
from leaving Russia if authorities knew his intentions.
“I feel
like a stranger here now in Russia,” he said from Moscow.
Okhotnik spent
several months fighting with the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk earlier
this year, but he told the Kyiv Post he decided to leave once he’d seen
separatists threaten to shoot local residents and realized that few of the
locals actually supported the separatist cause.
After
speaking out openly in the media about his disappointment with separatist
fighters, he said, “things have become very tense” in Russia.
“I’ve
already written to the Security Service of Ukraine and told them that I was a
separatist in the past and I plan on coming to Ukraine. But I haven’t gotten an
answer yet,” he said.
Olena Hiklianska, a spokeswoman
for Ukraine’s security service, known also as the SBU, said Okhotnik’s case was
not the first.
“If people
give themselves up voluntarily and come to us to repent, then, of course, that
makes things easier on them. We’ve had many such cases where former separatists
come to us and say it was a mistake,” she said.
“He has to come to any office of the SBU and write a full confession and
explain the circumstances. I think that if he does that, and expresses his
guilt, it will be better,” she said.
“We’ve had many people who fought alongside the separatists and later
wanted forgiveness for it,” Hiklianska said, adding that in some cases amnesty
would be offered.
Vladyslav Seleznyov, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, was
unavailable for comment on how the Ukrainian military would react to Okhotnik’s
new found allegiance to Ukraine.
On whether or not Okhotnik would be jailed, Hiklianska said “it depends
on what he did there, whether or not he killed people. There are a lot of
nuances that can affect his case.”
Okhotnik insists that he never
killed anybody.
“If I had killed anyone, it would be suicide for me to come to Ukraine
after that,” he said.
“I didn’t fully realize what I was getting into (when I fought in
Luhansk). But now, I see that criminal cases are being opened against people (in
Russia) just for writing poetry that is critical about the annexation of
Crimea,” he said.
Apart from scrutiny by the SBU, Okhotnik would also likely face the
difficult task of winning the trust of people who used to be his enemy.
Okhotnik, for his part, seemed well aware that he would not be met with
open arms, saying he realized that any meetings he makes with Ukrainian
fighters could prove to be a trap.
“Anything could happen. But I trust the Chechens more than anyone else,”
he said, adding that he had already reached out in an attempt to “reach an
agreement” with certain battalions, one of which was the Dzhokhar Dudayev
battalion.
Adam Osmayev, the commander of the Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion, said
“there will be no problems if he passes a check by the SBU.”
“But I highly doubt that he will. And we, of course, will conduct our
own, separate check into him through our own channels,” Osmayev said.
Other Ukrainian soldiers were skeptical of both Okhotnik’s intentions
and any success he might have fighting on the Ukrainian side.
One Ukrainian soldier who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fears
of angering his fellow comrades, said he doubted Okhotnik would be easily
forgiven.
“I’m afraid someone might end up using his skull as a teapot,” he said.
Kyiv Post staff writer
Allison Quinn can be reached at [email protected].
