Ukraine has brought back from Russian captivity a soldier of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, Oleksandr Harnaha, also known as Robocop, who was convicted in the Russian Federation under the article on terrorism. The soldier spent 506 days in Russian captivity.

Source:Oleksandr’s girlfriend Yuliia Kobrynovych, as reported by hromadske 

Details:Kobrynovych notes that Oleksandr is now safe, but she cannot tell where exactly. The other day, he was supposed to be transported from Yeniseysk to Krasnoyarsk, but it turned out that the man was included in the lists for the exchange of prisoners of war.

Yuliia says that mentions of her boyfriend’s court case, as well as many other Ukrainian servicemen, have disappeared from the website of the Russian court.

Oleksandr Harnaha is a lawyer by profession, who signed a contract with the Armed Forces even before the start of the full-scale war. In February 2022, he was transferred to a combat position. The defender was subsequently injured and faced prolonged treatment.

In the end, Robocop returned to the army, where he was transferred to the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade to the position of company commander. However, shortly after that he was captured by the Russians near Avdiivka.

Oleksandr’s relatives later learned that after an interrogation during the so-called investigation period, Oleksandr was held in a pre-trial detention centre in Rostov-on-Don. The Ukrainian was falsely convicted under the article on terrorism and sentenced to 18 years of penal colony.

To serve his sentence, the soldier was taken to the most brutal torture chamber of the Russian Federation, where most of the Azovites are held – SIZO No. 2 in Taganrog.

Background: 

• On 4 July, Kyiv and Moscow carried out another stage of the exchange of prisoners of war that had been agreed upon at a Russo-Ukrainian meeting of representatives in Istanbul. Civilians, severely injured and seriously ill defenders, and defenders under the age of 25 were brought back as part of the exchange.
• Among the liberated POWs are defenders of Mariupol whom the Russian Federation had held prisoner since 2022. The youngest soldier released in the exchange is 20 years old.

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