A Russian soldier is shown using grenades to destroy the headquarters of his unit before defecting to Ukraine in a remarkable clip shared by Kyiv’s military intelligence agency.
The serviceman, who is a first-person view (FPV) drone pilot with the call sign Silver, yesterday said he had opted to make the switch after being horrified by atrocities he said had seen committed by his Storm-Z assault unit, which largely consists of ex-convicts and mercenaries.
The top-secret operation was revealed by Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR), which said he had been plotting the audacious move for months, assisted by the Freedom of Russia Legion (FRL), a Russian militia opposed to Vladimir Putin.
Secretly recorded clips show Storm Z officers talking and cleaning their weapons.
However, once the unit commander and officers go to bed, there is a massive explosion.
Silver, speaking at a press conference in Kyiv, claimed: “There were about 15 people in the basement.
“There was a pipe directly above the bed where they were sleeping that went into the street next to the entrance, and we decided to throw two grenades into this pipe so that they would explode next to them.”
The battalion commander was seriously wounded by the blast, reports have suggested. One man appears to point a gun during the course of the clip.
Silver also claimed to have left anti-infantry mines on the road, before travelling along a pre-arranged route across the front line into Ukrainian territory and handing himself into Kyiv’s forces.
He voiced his disillusionment at Russia’s war on Ukraine and what he called “other crimes carried out by his command, including extrajudicial executions, beatings and extortion” of both civilians and soldiers.
Silver added: “I wanted to serve in the army, I gave an oath to protect my motherland.
“My motherland is there in Russia and no one attacked it… I didn’t want to die for Putin.”
A HUR spokesman said Silver had provided “valuable intelligence” on Russian military positions and offensive plans over several months.
A commander, with the call sign Caesar, told The Telegraph: “This operation shows the people of Russia that resistance can be successful, that motivated, clever, brave people can work to overthrow Putin’s regime.”
Silver was now an FRL recruit who would “very soon he will join us on the front line to fight Putin’s forces and defend Ukraine”, Caesar added.
Ukraine has focused on persuading unhappy Russian soldiers to jump ship ever since the start of the war, by the “I Want to Live project.”
The most high-profile recruit was Maxim Kuzminov, a Russian pilot, who flew his Mi8 attack helicopter to Ukraine in 2023.
In February, Mr Kuzminov’s body was found riddled with bullets in a car park in Alicante province, Spain in what was almost certainly an assassination by Russian operatives.
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