“He’s not my husband anymore”

Probable confirmations of this have appeared only now. In Russia, the military is still officially listed as having “voluntarily left the unit.”

In October 2024, Vyacheslav Trutnev and Dmitry Ostrovsky, soldiers of the 132nd brigade of the 109th regiment of the 3rd company, informed ASTRA that they fled their positions after the commander with the call sign “Prokop” drunkenly ordered them to move to a new point at night through minefields. During a video call with ASTRA correspondent, they also said that they had gone to war from the colonies, where they were serving sentences under the 228th article of the Criminal Code. They claimed that they signed contracts under pressure on the eve of their release. The men did not disclose their location in a conversation with an ASTRA journalist for security reasons, as they claimed to be “hiding from the command.” Vyacheslav’s common-law wife Alyona stated in the fall of 2024 that she and the young man’s mother Irina admit that the videos could have been recorded in Ukrainian captivity. However, there was no evidence of this at that time. At that time, the woman was informed in the military unit that Vyacheslav was listed as having voluntarily left the unit. In the fall of 2024, ASTRA also contacted Dmitry Ostrovsky’s mother, Irina. She reported that “the son is definitely not in captivity,” and confirmed the authenticity of the video with her son.

In July 2025, the Z-channel “Joker of the DPR” published several videos with Trutnev and Ostrovsky, allegedly from Ukrainian captivity.

“In fact, they were enslaved in order to be used in the staged materials of the Ukrainian units of Information and psychological operations. In these materials, they pose as deserters who supposedly live quietly in Russia and make content about how bad is the Russian army and all that,” the publication says. The footage posted on the pro-Kremlin channel actually shows Ostrovsky and Trutnev and two other unidentified people.

“The situation for today is like this: I’m not going to f*ck you up too much, because I don’t need it. We are currently filming, we are editing, I have material, we are shooting a video and going to bed,” one of the unidentified men in the video tells Vyacheslav and Dmitry.

According to the DPR Joker channel, the unidentified men are allegedly officers of the 72nd IPsO Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ilya Kostritsa and Konstantin Kozlov. It is alleged that the footage was obtained by hacking the phone of one of them — he was allegedly sent a phishing link.

Trutnev and Ostrovsky themselves did not answer ASTRA’s questions at the time of publication, and their closed telegram channel “Call Sign 404” was renamed “Call 510”, ASTRA drew attention. In it, they posted videos with Russian military personnel from the Roulette video chat, communicating with them under the guise of Russian military personnel who are still on their own.

After the publication of new videos with Dmitry and Vyacheslav, ASTRA contacted Dmitry’s mother and Vyacheslav’s common-law wife again.

“Yes, it’s all true. They voluntarily surrendered and are now working for them — in Ukraine, posting all sorts of videos to their telegram channel. I haven’t talked to him for a long time. He talks to his mom. I think he’s allowed to call once a week. After all this, I don’t want to talk to him. He was the one who threatened me. I went to the FSB about it. He’s not my husband anymore. He betrayed his homeland,” Vyacheslav’s ex-common-law wife Alyona told ASTRA. The woman added that “the FSB is already waiting for Vyacheslav in Russia.” When asked if she meant that he would face criminal prosecution if he returned to the Russian Federation, the woman replied: “it is unknown what will happen to him. People are not only imprisoned for betraying the motherland,” she said.

“Yes, he’s a prisoner. I also found out recently that he is not being submitted to the exchange lists, the status is “volontarily left the unit” on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Dmitry’s mother Irina told ASTRA, who has a picture on her telegram avatar saying “son, mom is waiting for you.”