Versions of Victor Ageev

The Russian military Viktor Ageev, who was captured by Ukrainian fighters and the accused of the SBU of terrorism, claims that he did not fight Ukraine, and fears that after returning to Russia they can be killed.

Last Saturday, July 22, his mother Svetlana Ageeva came to him from the Altai Territory. Ukraine, as an exception, put it into the country according to the internal Russian passport. The meeting took place in the Dyzo Starobelsk (Lugansk region). In addition, Viktor Ageev was able to talk with several Western media reporters, the Ukrainian television channel 1+1 and the Russian Novaya Gazeta.

Answering the question about the mission of the Russian military in the east of Ukraine, Ageev said: "Protection of civilians in the territory of the" LPR "from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the same time, the Russian corporal does not agree with the statements that Russia is fighting in the Donbass with Ukraine: "What is waging a war, I do not agree with this. I think that it helps Lugansk and Donetsk. Maybe some kind of humanitarian aid." Obviously, by humanitarian aid, Ageev also implies the supply of Russian weapons and military equipment to separatists, as well as participation in the Donbass conflict of Russian soldiers and officers.

On June 24, in the area of the village of Zhelobok, Lugansk Region, fighters of the 93rd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine neutralized the enemy diversion and reconnaissance group and captured 4 people, one of them was a resident of the Altai Territory of Russia, 22-year-old citizen of Russia Viktor Ageev. Two weeks ago, in an interview with the 1+1 television channel, Ageev said that he is a Russian military contract, which are regularly sent to Donbass by the so-called "flights". In March 2017, he signed a contract for service in the Rostov region, in the military unit 65246, which is located in Novocherkassk. There he stayed for four days, and then he was sent to the Lugansk region.

According to the latest version of Viktor Ageev, he signed the contract already in Lugansk, with the separatists: "It was my desire to serve there. We arrived, we met and took us to the military enlistment office of Lugansk, where we went through a second medical commission, and then I arrived in the unit of the unit as a Russian soldier."

At a time when Ageev met his mother in Starobelsk, the chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasily Gritsak at a briefing in Kyiv called the names and callsigns of 15 Russians who were in the same unit as the corporal contained in custody: “We use this situation so that through the mother and media the journalist to convey to the Russian citizens who are there (in the Donbass) there are allegedly, there are allegedly those who are still relatives who are still relatives who are still relatives who are still relatives who are still relatives who are still relatives. Alive or already died on our land, came to their senses, called their sons, fathers and brothers back to Russia from Ukraine and launched a campaign against sending mercenaries and personnel of the Russian military. ” He called on Svetlana Ageeva, who asked the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to have pardon her son, to appeal to the leadership of Russia with a request to free 134 Ukrainian prisoners, who are held by separatists in their prisons in the territories of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions uncontrolled in Kyiv.

SBU spokesman Elena Gitlyanskaya last Saturday was in the Starobelsky pre-trial detention center and tells who was the initiator of the mother meeting with Viktor Ageev and why the Ukrainian intelligence service decided to organize it:

- It was the proposal of Pavel Kanygin ( journalist of the Russian Novaya Gazeta. - Approx. ). He wanted to interview Ageev and said that he could bring his mother. We agreed. Ukraine is a rule of law, and we cannot do as bad as the territory of Donbass with the Ukrainians who are there in custody. We hope that after this meeting, my mother’s eyes open to the real situation in Ukraine, because before that, judging by her words, she did not understand what was happening in the east of Ukraine and where her son went. Mom is a teacher of English in a rural school, a person is stupid, she said that she received all the information only from the programs of Russian TV, and admitted that the showed on TV was significantly different from what she saw in Ukraine. She was afraid to go to our country, believing that people very hostile to the Russians live here and could offend her, beat.

- In addition to you, Svetlana Ageeva, the adviser to the head of the SBU Yuri Tandit communicated. What did you talk about?

- We did not ask her about anything. If you remember, she turned to Russian President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov for help even before a trip to Ukraine. After the meeting, she wrote an appeal to the Russian authorities so that they were as respectfully as in Ukraine, treated our mothers whose sons are hostage in the Russian Federation.

- What is your impression of Ageev? He said at the last meeting with reporters and earlier in an interview with the 1+1 channel does not quite match. How did he explain it?

- In principle, I know much more about him than he tried to tell. At the same time, we, of course, did not intervene in the process of his conversation with journalists. It was important that he himself answered, and everyone who saw this was evaluated - he tells the truth or not. We understand that he is a Russian military, he came to Lugansk under a contract and he himself admitted this when he answered questions from media representatives. And there were several points when he got confused. For example, Victor said that he had a contract for service in the Russian Armed Forces and came to Lugansk to sign another. And when the journalist of the German publication "Bild" asked: how could you arbitrarily break the contract with the Russian military unit and sign a new one, is it actually desertion, if this was not agreed? Ageev could not explain this situation after a pause said that no one would voluntarily go to the LPR ( although he said before that he had arrived in Lugansk at his request. - Approx. ). It seems to me that he is afraid to tell the whole truth, because in this case he admits that he fought against Ukraine as a military man of the Russian Federation, but on the other hand, you won’t get anywhere from the truth.

-The head of the SBU Vasily Gritsak named the 15 names of Russians from the same unit in which there was also Ageev in the LPR, are they all Russian military contracants?

- Yes, they all serve under a contract in the Russian army. Ageev told reporters that they had 10 more people in the same unit in the same unit. Before journalists, he spoke with the SBU adviser Yuri Tandit. He showed photographs of the Russian military, and Ageev confirmed that they served together, and even earlier, during the interrogation, he said that he arrived in Donbass with the Russian military personnel.

- In an interview with Pavel Kanygin, Ageev said that he was afraid that if he returned to Russia, then the fate of the Russian Gereushnik Yevgeny Erofeev will wait for him there, who was allegedly killed after the exchange.

-We discussed these phrases with Kanygin, and the Russian journalist suggested that Erofeev is alive and well and continues to serve somewhere in one of the remote parts of the RF Armed Forces. This is propaganda, which is conducted among the so-called "hybrid" troops of Russia, so that its soldiers and officers understand that you need to keep their mouths behind your teeth and particularly spread when you are captured by the Ukrainian security forces, said SBU spokesman Elena Gitlyanskaya.

Employees of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate Evgeny Erofeev and Alexander Alexandrov were captured in the same Luhansk region, under the city of happiness in 2015, and after the Goloseevsky court of Kyiv sentenced them to them, Russians were exchanged on May 25, 2016 for the Ukrainian pilot convicted in Russia, Nadezhda Savchenko. In an interview with Novaya Gazeta, Ageev said: “I know for sure that Erofeev was shot in Russia. Everyone is saying about this: here and here, on this side. Everyone knows what they did to him. Because he was talking excess.” However, lawyer Valentin Rybin (he defended Alexander Alexandrov at the process in Kiev) claims that Erofeev is alive:

- I believe that Ageev, sitting in the department for ensuring the pre -trial investigation of the SBU, in no way can know what happened to the citizen of the Russian Federation Erofeev. Therefore, this is the next PR move, possibly with the SBU, so that once again the surname Ageeva sounds like an irritant for Russia to take it to a dialogue.

- Where did you get the information that Evgeny Erofeev is alive?

- I report almost officially that last weekend I was in Moscow, and Evgeny Erofeev felt great, despite his wound (received during the fighting in the Donbass) and problems with the development of his hand. But he is more alive than all living things, he is engaged in civilian life on his own, and I did not observe any problems.

- Have you personally met with Erofeev?

- No, I personally did not meet, but the information that I have, believe me, is reliable. I am not authorized to make statements from the police or other official bodies of the Russian Federation, but I think that if they consider it necessary in Russia, they will make an official statement on this subject, although most likely, it is unlikely, because this is absolutely not an information reason for Russia, ”said lawyer Valentin Rybin.

On May 30, 2016, some Russian and Ukrainian Internet publications appeared that Evgeny Erofeev was allegedly killed on the verge of his apartment in Togliatti, but the next day this information was refuted by the city police.