WSJ told the story of "one of the most effective spies in modern military history"
The cooperation of Russian officer Lev Stupnikov with the Armed Forces of Ukraine caused the deaths of hundreds of his fellow soldiers.
WSJ reported on "one of the most effective spies in modern military history"
Lev Stupnikov's name became known to the public in September 2025. Back then, in an interview with Ukrainian videoblogger Dmitriy Karpenko, Stupnikov confessed: while being an officer in the Russian army, he worked for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and targeted his fellow soldiers for strikes for more than six months. RT reported that more than 200 Russian servicemen died because of him. By this time, Chechens had declared a hunt for Stupnikov, who had crossed the frontline and started fighting in the ranks of the "Russian Volunteer Corps".
Lev Stupnikov is 26 years old. He was born in Kazakhstan. In his childhood, his father abandoned the family. His mother Tatyana Jansen raised Lev and his sister Alisa alone. Tatyana moved to Russia under the compatriot resettlement program and settled in Omsk when her son was a teenager. Here Stupnikov entered the cadet corps, and later went to Saint Petersburg to study at the Military Academy of Telecommunications. The study process lasted five years — from 2018 to 2023.
In 2021, Lev married Liza, the girl he loved, and began to think about giving up his military career. But the full-scale war that broke out between Russia and Ukraine changed everything. Stupnikov was shocked by Russia's invasion of the neighboring country's territory. In the summer of 2023, he graduated from the academy with the rank of lieutenant and was assigned to the 36th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade based in the Trans-Baikal Territory. However, his mobilization to the war in Ukraine was a matter of time, and it happened in November 2023.
His mother Tatyana Jansen was also disappointed with the Russian government. Her shock at the start of the war was no less than Lev's. She pulled her daughter Alisa out of school to keep her from falling under the influence of military propaganda, and also sought advice from human rights activists to get her son discharged from military service. Human rights activists advised organizing an escape through Belarus and Armenia. Tatyana was aware that her son would stop in Moscow before being sent to the front. She urged her son to board a plane to Kazakhstan and hide at relatives' houses. But he rejected this plan because it was too dangerous.
In February 2024, three months after her son was sent to the front, Tatyana contacted Dmitriy Karpenko. He was a Ukrainian programmer and blogger who published interviews with Russian prisoners and deserters on YouTube, and also offered money for cooperation with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Tatyana asked him to help her son desert. After learning that his mother had contacted this blogger, Lev watched his videos and then wrote to him directly via WhatsApp. He expressed his readiness to cooperate and surrender. At the same time, he refused the monetary reward.