13 years in prison for a Russian soldier accused of desertion

Her court martial of Russia sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony a soldier accused of deserting his military unit to avoid fight in Ukraine.

In a statement released to the public, the military court in the city of Yuzno-Sakhalinsk, located on Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East, notes that the accused was found guilty of desertion as it was a “conscription period”.

According to this source, Maxim Kochetkov did not appear on May 10 to his unit “for not fulfilling his military obligations”, “to avoid being sent to the zone of special military operations (in Ukraine)” and “for laziness”.

After deserting his unit in Sakhalin, he stayed for two months in the area before being captured on 9 July, the military court clarifies in its announcement. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison for desertion, but his sentence was increased to 13 years because of his previous suspended sentence in February for leaving his unit without permission.

In September 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the mobilization after Moscow’s difficulties on the Ukrainian frontcausing her departure from Russia of hundreds of thousands of men who were feared to be conscripted.

Since the spring, to avoid unrest among the population, the Russian army has launched a recruitment campaign on a voluntary basis, promising attractive salaries and social benefits to those who go to the front.