Contract soldier in Russia sentenced to 13 years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine

A court in Sakhalin has sentenced a contract soldier to 13 years in a maximum-security prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine.

Source: BBC News Russian service, referring to the website of the South Sakhalin Garrison Military Court

Details: It is reported that this week the contract soldier was found guilty in a case of desertion during mobilisation (Art. 338.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and sentenced to nine years in prison.

The court's website says that the man did not report to the military unit, wanting to "avoid being sent to the zone of the special military operation [as the Russians call the war against Ukraine – ed.] and spend his time being idle".

In February of this year, he was already conditionally sentenced in a case of leaving the unit without permission (Art. 337.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The Russian contract soldier was therefore sentenced to 13 years in a strict-regime penal colony.

Mediazona reported that the soldier in question is Maksim Aleksandrovich Kochetkov, and is 21 years of age.

The Insider stated that Kochetkov was among the Russian servicemen who were held in inhumane conditions in a non-operational penal colony in Luhansk Oblast in Ukraine last year because they refused to fight.

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