Russia puts on trial soldier who surrendered to save his five soldiers

Russia's 2nd Western District Military Court has begun reviewing a criminal case against Vladislav Balgrabsky, a 30-year-old soldier who fought in the war, according to the independent outlet Mediazona. He faces charges of voluntarily surrendering to the enemy, desertion, and treason.

In April 2025, Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov published a video in which Balgrabsky said he had signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry in the summer of 2024 and served as a company commander in the 7th Motorized Rifle Regiment. He explained that he surrendered to Ukrainian forces together with five soldiers after receiving a clearly impossible order. "I decided to surrender in order to survive, to be able to see my family, my child. I’ll just stay alive and keep the guys alive. […] These people trusted me, and they survived," he said in the video. At the end, he urged other Russian servicemen to do the same.

The video drew more than 990,000 views. Eight months later, in December 2025, a case card appeared on the website of the Moscow Garrison Military Court showing that Balgrabsky's detention had been extended. It was extended twice more after that. According to Mediazona, this usually indicates that the person is in custody and that the case is being heard in person rather than in absentia.

Balgrabsky appears to have been returned to Russia in a prisoner exchange between April and December 2025, a period during which Russia and Ukraine carried out at least seven such exchanges.

The article criminalizing voluntary surrender was added to Russia's Criminal Code in 2022, following the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the mobilization campaign. Russia's Supreme Court has ruled that a surrender is voluntary when a person surrenders knowingly and has the ability to offer "decisive resistance."

The first conviction under this statute came in April 2025, when Junior Sergeant Roman Ivanishin was sentenced to 15 years in a penal colony. He had surrendered to Ukrainian forces in 2023 and appeared in a video urging other Russian servicemen to abandon their units. He was later returned to Russia in a prisoner exchange.