Gulagu.net ends evacuation program for former Russian soldiers after past evacuee admits he helped capture Ukrainians who were later murdered

The human rights group Gulagu.net has stopped evacuating people from Russia who had ties to the Russian army and Russian security forces, founder Vladimir Osechkin reported on Wednesday.

According to Osechkin, the decision came in response to a “negative experience” that occurred when the group helped a Russian soldier named Pavel Filatyev evacuate from Russia to France. Osechkin said Filatyev “admitted to concealing information from us and from the media about the murders of Ukrainians whose imprisonment he participated in.”

In his statement, Osechkin quoted excerpts from an article that was published in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter in late February. According to the article, Filatyev told journalists that “some of the prisoners that we captured were later shot or hanged.” He emphasized that he didn’t witness the murders himself and that he learned about them from other servicemen.

After two months of fighting in Ukraine, Filyatev left the Russian army and wrote a book about his experience. According to Osechkin, Filyatev initially intended to donate the proceeds from his book sales to Ukraine, but later decided not to.