The Kursk Regional Court received the case of Andrei Ermolenkov, suspected of attempted illegal border crossing and preparation for high treason. Mediazona found information about this on the court’s website.
The Baza telegram channel reported on the arrest of Ermolenkov on May 11. According to its authors, a 20-year-old resident of Zheleznogorsk was planning to join the Freedom of Russia legion and sent his “curators” the coordinates of military units. In addition, according to the telegram channel, the young man filled out a form to join the Ukrainian army, where he indicated his passport details, height, weight, fitness category for military service and desired call sign.
A week later, the SHOT telegram channel published a video in which Ermolenkov allegedly told security forces that after the Russian invasion began, he “showed a desire to help the Ukrainians.” According to the young man, he bought chevrons with the flag of the “Freedom of Russia” legion on AliExpress and “received instructions on how to cross the border.”
According to Baza, the young man communicated with people who introduced themselves as representatives of the “Freedom of Russia” legion through a telegram bot. In a video released by SHOT, he says he was detained while trying to cross the border. The 37-second video with Ermolenkov’s words was stitched together from four different small fragments, and he himself probably reads a pre-prepared text.