Ukrainian border guards and Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) officers have detained a 29-year-old militant who fought for separatist republics in the east of the country. Notably, the man came from Minsk.
“As it turns out, the man, a citizen of Ukraine, fought in the illegal armed groups in the east of Ukraine. Law enforcers found that he was a member of a group of Russian mercenaries and completed tasks near the town of Snizhne (Donetsk region) which is not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities” the State Border Service of Ukraine reports.
The mercenary was detained when going through customs and border control after he had flown to Kyiv from Minsk. It is reported that he left Donbas through a separatist-controlled part of the Ukrainian-Russian border.
It is not the first time that Ukrainian security services have arrested a militant from unrecognised republics who had previously been in the Belarusian territory.
In September 2017, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) detained Roman Dzhumaev, a militant of the so-called Donetsk republic, in Maryino district, when he was trying to cross he demarcation line. According to SBU, the militant was going to visit his parents who live in the Ukrainian town of Mariupol.
Roman Dzhumaev was born in Mariupol in 1991. In 2014, he went to fight on the side of Russian-backed separatists against the Ukrainian authorities. He took part in the battle of Debaltseve and the battle for Donetsk Airport. Ukraine opened a criminal case against the native of Mariupol for his participation in illegal armed groups.
In the summer of 2015, Dzhumayev left Donbas and moved to Belarus. The man settled in the town of Maryina Horka and worked as a sales manager. Not being secretive about his was experience, Dzhumayev granted an interview to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Belarusian law enforcement agencies did not show any interest in him. In total, the former militant lived about a year in our country.
ІІ, belsat.eu
