“I intentionally detonated a grenade to escape the war.” A man from Samarkand who was in the ranks of the Russian army has been tried

“I intentionally detonated a grenade to escape the war.” A man from Samarkand who was in the ranks of the Russian army has been tried

According to the verdict issued by the Samarkand District Criminal Court, a 30-year-old man from Samarkand who participated in the war against Ukraine as part of the Russian Armed Forces has had his freedom restricted for 4 years.

It is reported that I.A., a resident of the Payariq district, went to Russia in June 2022 to work, and was engaged in construction and delivery work in the cities of Podolsk and Balashikha in the Moscow region. In July 2025, while working as a courier in Balashikha, he crashed his scooter on the road and fell. At that moment, two men in civilian clothes beat him, searched his bag, and pointed to various colored tablets inside as psychotropic substances.

Even though I.A. stated that the tablets did not belong to him, the unknown individuals took him to one of the law enforcement agencies in Moscow.

“After arriving at the office, I was kept with my hands and feet tied for a day. Then, for about a week, they interrogated me every day about who I got the psychotropic substances from. Although I told them they did not belong to me, they did not believe me and tortured me in various ways. In the end, they offered me to work on the construction of a military training ground for a year in exchange for escaping punishment. Since I had worked in construction, I agreed to this,” I.A. said in his testimony.

However, subsequent events unfolded differently. He was taken to the defense department in Moscow on the very same day. Without understanding the content of the documents in Russian, I.A. signed them. Among them was a military service contract with the Russian Armed Forces. After a medical examination, he was taken to the “Avangard” military facility. There, he was taught how to use an automatic rifle and a grenade, and 2 million rubles were transferred to his card.

After that, on September 1, I.A. was taken first to the city of Voronezh, and then to the 12th Tank Regiment located in the town of Belolutsk in the Luhansk region. On September 28, he was sent to the front-line area and placed in a dugout.

On October 3, during a drone attack, he intentionally detonated a grenade to escape the war, injuring his left leg. After that, he was treated in hospitals first in Belolutsk, and then in Belgorod.

“Finding no other way to escape the war, I was forced to intentionally detonate the grenade I had. As a result, my left leg was injured, and I was sent to hospitals for treatment. Later, they took me to Moscow,” I.A. said.

In Moscow, he went on paid leave starting from November 6. On November 26, instead of returning to the military unit, he fled to Uzbekistan. However, after his return, he did not inform the relevant law enforcement agencies about his participation in the war.

In court, I.A.’s mother asked for leniency, stating that his father died in 1999 while performing his duties in the internal affairs bodies, that she is in need of medical assistance, and that his younger brother went to Russia to work in January 2026 and went missing, and that Interpol had also been contacted to find him.

By court verdict, I.A. was found guilty under Article 154, Part 1 of the Criminal Code (Mercenarism) and sentenced to a 4-year restriction of liberty.