Seven months of coercion and an escape attempt: how the Armed Forces of Ukraine captured a former ATO fighter from the Kherson region

In the Pokrovsky direction, fighters of the Svoboda battalion captured a Russian serviceman, who turned out to be a former ATO fighter from the Kherson region, Pavlo Pshenichny. The man said that he ended up in the Russian army after a fabricated accusation, forced mobilization, and an attempt to escape from Avdiivka.

He said this in an interview with hromadske .

In the Donetsk region, in the Pokrovsky direction, fighters of the Svoboda battalion detained a Russian army serviceman, who turned out to be a resident of the occupied Kalanchak in the Kherson region, Pavlo Pshenichny. In the past, he served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and participated in hostilities in Donbas.

From the ATO to the occupation

Pavlo Pshenichny signed a contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2018, and within a month he was sent to the ATO zone. In 2019, he was wounded and returned home. After the occupation of Kalanchak, the Russian military came to him two weeks later.

They conducted a search, confiscated the combat participant’s ID card, disability certificate, and awards, and later began to visit regularly during rotations, behaving aggressively.

Fabricated case and mobilization

In the fall of 2024, the occupiers accused Pavlo of drug possession. According to him, the police planted a bag of cannabis during a search. In May 2025, he was to be sentenced illegally to 12.5 years in prison. However, on the same day, he was handed documents to sign, after which representatives of the military enlistment office entered the courtroom and took the man to the Russian army.

On June 8, he was transported to a permanent deployment point in Makiivka, Donetsk region. There, he underwent training with other mobilized from the occupied territories, and the training was conducted by former Russian prisoners.

Escape from Avdiivka

After training, Pavlo was sent to the front line in the Avdiivka area. Here, he says, there was an opportunity to escape. Together with another soldier, he left the position at 4 a.m., walking through an open area under the threat of shelling. A Ukrainian drone indicated the direction of movement, and they reached the extreme Russian position.

It was here that they were intercepted by fighters from the “Svoboda” battalion. Pavlo surrendered without resistance, immediately reporting information about the location of enemy forces.

According to him, in the unit where he served in the Russian army, the majority were mobilized from the occupied territories, while regular Russians held leadership positions and rarely participated in assault operations.

Recall that on July 20, a Russian marine got lost and voluntarily surrendered to Ukrainian border guards in the Kursk direction.

It was previously reported that for the first time in the history of war, Ukrainianmilitary captured occupiers using a ground robotic complex.

It should be recalled that in June 2025, for the first time in the history of war, Ukrainian military personnel captured a Russian occupier using an FPV drone .

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