Russia puts soldier who surrendered to Ukraine on trial for 'treason'

Independent outlet Mediazona reports that a trial has opened at the Moscow Garrison Military Court against a Russian serviceman accused of voluntary surrender, desertion and treason.

The defendant is 30-year-old Vladislav Balgrabsky. According to a video published last April by Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov, Balgrabsky signed a contract with Russia's Defense Ministry in summer 2024 and commanded a company in a motorized rifle regiment. After receiving what he considered a deliberately impossible order, he surrendered to Ukrainian forces along with five soldiers under his command. In the video, viewed nearly a million times, he explained his decision as a wish to survive and see his family again, and called on other Russian soldiers to surrender as well.

Detained after a swap

Sometime between April and December of last year, Balgrabsky was apparently handed back to Russia during one of at least seven prisoner exchanges conducted in that period. In December, the military court's website showed his pretrial detention had been extended; it has since been extended twice more, indicating the case is being heard with the defendant present rather than in absentia.

The charge of voluntary surrender was added to Russia's criminal code in 2022, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Russia's Supreme Court has ruled that surrender counts as voluntary if the serviceman had a chance to resist but chose not to.

The first sentence under this article was handed down in April 2025, when junior sergeant Roman Ivanishin, who surrendered in 2023 and urged others in a video to flee their units, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He, too, was later returned to Russia through a prisoner exchange.