Liza Fokht

May 24, 2024 | bbcrussian.substack.com | Liza Fokht |Ilya Barabanov

By Liza Fokht and Ilya Barabanov. In September 2023, a 42-year old convicted Russian drug dealer called Andrei signed up to fight in Ukraine. Motivated solely by the desire to escape his seven- year jail sentence, and with no thought for the rights and wrongs of what he was doing, Andrei found himself leading a unit of fellow prisoners into battle in occupied Luhansk region.