Mykolaiv court punishes mobilized shooter for desertion

In Mykolaiv, a court found a native of Melitopol, a mobilized rifleman, guilty of unauthorized abandonment of his place of service during martial law. The man was sentenced to five years in prison.

This is evidenced by the verdict of the Ingulsky District Court of Mykolaiv.

According to the verdict, the soldier, who was drafted in March 2022, served in a security company as a rifleman. On May 10, 2022, he left the unit's location in the Ingul district of Mykolaiv without permission.

In court, the soldier explained his actions by health problems - according to him, his hemorrhoids had become aggravated, but he was twice denied surgery. He also complained about overwork - in particular, he was often involved in unloading furniture. According to him, he later lost motivation to serve.

The man pleaded guilty in full, but the court decided that the explanations provided were not supported by adequate evidence. The defendant also failed to prove that he had dependents or a seriously ill mother, as he had previously claimed. According to the medical certificates, his mother has a third group of disability, but works.

After his escape, he moved to Odesa, where he worked, despite not being discharged from the army. In September 2024, he was detained, but in October he was released on bail of 60,560 hryvnias. Now the shooter has to serve a five-year sentence. The court ordered him to credit the number of days of pre-trial detention, but the verdict may be appealed.

In another case, on the contrary, the court lifted the arrest of a soldier who had previously evaded service and returned the bail he had paid. In February 2023, he received a referral to Kyiv City Hospital No. 1, where he underwent inpatient treatment, but after discharge, he did not return to his unit. Now he is obliged to report for duty, and the command must confirm his reinstatement.

At the same time, in another case in Mykolaiv region, the court decided to keep in custody a soldier who had left the unit without permission. He was detained in the spring of 2025 in the mountains of Ivano-Frankivsk region.

Анна Бальчінос