The Ministry of Internal Affairs has put on the wanted list Russian lieutenant Ivan Korolev, who fled to Lithuania. Mediazona drew attention to the information in the wanted database.
Korolev’s card says that he is “wanted under an article of the Criminal Code.” It is not yet known why a criminal case has been opened.
Korolyov’s card in the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ search database
On August 11, the BBC Russian Service published an interview with Korolev. In it, he said that on August 3 he fled from Russia to Lithuania and requested political asylum there. “I decided to leave the Russian Federation due to the fact that I did not want to take part in the bloody war that my state unleashed,” the BBC quotes him as saying.
According to Korolev, he served in military unit 59313-39, which is normally stationed in the village of Teysin, Khabarovsk Territory. After the start of a full-scale war with Ukraine, the lieutenant was sent to distribute ammunition for the Russian military.
“I took part in the SVO, but was all this time on the territory of the Russian Federation. I have not been to the territory of Ukraine. We were engaged in providing Russian troops with ammunition. We received ammunition from all over Russia, from all units, from all arsenals and distributed them to brigades and units directly to Ukraine,” the officer claims.
This is the second known case of a Russian military man escaping to Lithuania after the start of a full-scale invasion in Ukraine. In June, pilot Dmitry Mishov asked for asylum in this country. On June 20, he was also put on the wanted list “under an article of the Criminal Code.”