In the Russian city of Barnaul, a garrison military court has sentenced serviceman Yevgeny Zelenkov to nine years in total in a general regime penal colony over charges of repeatedly going AWOL, Tayga.info reports, citing the court’s website.
“On 31 October 2022, the serviceman failed to report for duty, without legitimate reasons [for his absence]. On 1 December, Zelenkov was detained by police officers and taken to the military commander’s office. However, on 15 December, he failed to report for duty again. On 31 January 2023, Zelenkov was detained by police officers,” the court’s press service reports.
The basis for the verdict were the two occasions on which the sailor failed to show up for duty.
Zelenkov was previously convicted twice under the same article. In March 2022, he left a field camp during the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine because he “wanted to take a break from military duty and spend time with his loved ones”. He was found guilty of going AWOL and sentenced to a year of restricted military duty.
In August and September, Zelenkov once again failed to report for duty to a military unit, including in the period after mobilisation had been announced. In response, he was sentenced to two years and one month in a settlement colony, considering his previous unserved conviction.
