The 2nd Western District Military Court has received a criminal case against Vladislav Balgrabsky, a 30-year-old participant in the invasion of Ukraine, Mediazona reported.
Balgrabsky is accused of voluntary surrender (Article 352.1 of the Criminal Code), desertion (Part 3 of Article 338), anti-state calls (paragraph 'c' of Part 2 of Article 280.4), and high treason (Article 275).
In April 2025, the Ukrainian project 'Butusov Plus' published an interview with the captured Balgrabsky. He said he signed a contract with the Defense Ministry in summer 2024 for money. According to him, he was a company commander in the 7th Motor Rifle Regiment and decided to surrender after eight months, when his battalion commander gave him a knowingly impossible order.
Instead of carrying out the order, he went to Ukrainian positions, bringing five subordinates with him. 'I decided to surrender to survive, to have the chance to see my family, my child. I just stayed alive and kept the guys alive. These people trusted me and stayed alive,' he said in the interview.
At the end of the video, Balgrabsky urged other Russian soldiers to surrender, promising they would be 'fed, given water, clothed, washed,' then exchanged and returned to their families.
In December 2025, a card appeared on the Moscow Garrison Military Court's website about extending Balgrabsky's detention. Later, detention was extended twice more. Apparently, between April and December, he was returned to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange, Mediazona noted. During that period, Russia and Ukraine conducted at least seven prisoner exchanges.
The article on voluntary surrender was added to the Russian Criminal Code in 2022. The first conviction under it came in April 2025: Junior Sergeant Roman Ivanishin received 15 years in a penal colony.