Helped eliminate 150 occupiers: 19-year-old Russian soldier defected to Ukraine. VIDEO
Artem, a 19-year-old soldier with the 102nd Motorised Rifle Regiment of the Russian Federation’s 150th Division, decided to defect to Ukraine. Prior to this, he had been assisting the Ukrainian Defence Forces in destroying Russian military equipment.
He spoke about this in an interview with Dmytro Karpenko, reports Censor.NET.
Details
He contacted the "I Want to Live" project in mid-November 2025 and stated that he wanted to surrender. The Russian soldier also said that he wanted to pass on aid to the Ukrainian Defence Forces.
Artem is a 19-year-old native of Novosibirsk; he was subsequently conscripted for military service despite being a student at a higher education institution.
He later signed a contract with the Russian army and hoped to train as a warrant officer. However, the young man was sent to the combat zone.
He was subsequently transferred to the 102nd Motorised Rifle Regiment, 2nd Motorised Rifle Battalion. There, he was assigned as a UAV operator without proper training.
His unit operated in the direction of Sofiivka and Volodymyrivka.
How did he help Ukraine?
For 80 days, he communicated with the ‘I Want to Live’ project and passed on information about the Russian army, including the coordinates of positions, equipment and the routes of units from the 102nd Regiment.
Artem passed on information about where Russian troops were heading, who they were and how many there were – with a delay of 10–15 minutes.
Thanks to the information provided, four UAV crews, four mortar crews, a Chinese multiple launch rocket system and at least two tanks were destroyed.
A further 150 occupiers were eliminated and 50 wounded.
The intelligence provided made it possible to disrupt the advance of Russian Federation units. The command changed directions on several occasions, but the new routes were also hit.
Artem saved Defence Forces units by passing on information that they had been detected, which helped save the lives of Ukrainian defenders.
The occupiers suspected a leak, but were never able to identify the source.
After several attempts, he managed to reach Ukrainian positions, covering 20 km. There, he was picked up by Ukrainian military personnel.
Artem wishes to continue serving on the Ukrainian side as part of the "Russian Volunteer Corps".
