The Security Service of Ukraine, better known as the SBU, has promised to investigate the activities of a Brazilian man who fought for Russia-led separatists in the Donbas, after a group of Ukrainian nationalists found him in Kyiv and took him to the SBU office.
The nationalists found 33-year-old Rafael Lusvarghi near the Brazilian Embassy after searching a Ukrainian Orthodox monastery, where Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty revealed he was living a day earlier.
Apparently led by Yevhen Karas and Serhiy Mazar of S14, a far-right organization, and Serhiy Filimonov of the Azov Battalion, the mob marched Lusvarghi through Kyiv, interrogating him along the way.
A self-declared member of the French Foreign Legion, Lusvarghi came to the Donbas by way of Russia in 2014 and fought against Ukrainian forces in several of the war’s major battles. He frequently appeared in Russian and separatist propaganda, at one point promising to “march to Kyiv and end the war.”
Lusvarghi returned to Brazil in 2016. However, later that year, he was lured back to Ukraine with a false job offer planted by the SBU and arrested at Kyiv Boryspil International Airport. In January 2017, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison on terrorism charges.
Then, in August 2017, a court unexpectedly overturned the verdict. In December, Lusvarghi was released from prison pending a new investigation and retrial.
But without his passport, he could not leave Ukraine. Since his release, Lusvarghi has lived at the Svyato-Pokrovsky Holosiivsky Monastery and claimed to have become religious, according to RFE/RL.
After the nationalists captured Lusvarghi, the former fighter reportedly “asked for forgiveness before the Ukrainian nation on his knees,” Azov member Filimonov said in a livestream he recorded while marching Lusvarghi through Kyiv.
Under interrogation by Filimonov, Lusvarghi said that he had not killed anyone in the Donbas and that his actions there had been motivated by “vanity.” Along the way, he also characterized his time in the Donbas as a mistake.
During the livestream, Filimonov complained about several recent acts of “sabotage” in Ukraine, including a May 2 knife attack on a Ukrainian military veteran.
“Despite these events, they calmly release separatists into the city…people who have stated that they committed murder,” he said.
After the nationalists brought Lusvarghi to the SBU headquarters, an SBU representative stated that Lusvarghi’s cases is currently filed with the court, which sets bail in response to a petition from the State Prosecutor’s office. In other words, the SBU was not responsible for Lusvarghi’s release.
Still, the SBU promised to investigate the matter, according to Radio Svoboda.
“At your request, we will carry out investigative actions into the circumstances of his stay in Kyiv, his activities, and we will additionally interrogate him about the activities of the [Russia-led separatists],” an SBU representative told the nationalists.
