- Ukrainian police said they arrested a Russian soldier who had been in hiding for about six months.
- The soldier was left behind by his unit after they fled the Ukrainian counteroffensive last year.
- Dressed in civilian clothes, the soldier was hiding in abandoned buildings, police said.
Ukrainian police said they arrested a Russian soldier who was separated from his unit six months ago and had been in hiding the entire time.
The 42-year-old soldier, who was from the 27th Russian Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, was found by a police patrol group in Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi, in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, the police said in a statement on Monday.
He was not identified by name, though police said he was from Moscow.
The soldier, who was dressed in civilian clothes, had been hiding out in abandoned buildings ever since his unit fled the Ukrainian counteroffensive last September, the statement said.
Police are now investigating how he managed to stay on Ukrainian territory for half a year.
In September, Ukraine launched a rapid counteroffensive that recaptured swathes of territory in the region that had previously been taken by Russian forces.
The move was so quick and sudden that it prompted Russian troops to flee as fast as they could, leaving behind so much weaponry and ammunition that Ukraine reportedly struggled to handle it all.
Ukrainian officials had also conducted a massive door-to-door search operation, finding Russian soldiers hiding in cellars and nearby forests, The Guardian reported.
Kharkiv continues to be under attack by Russian forces. This week, officials ordered an evacuation of the city of Kupiansk in the region after an uptick in missile strikes, according to The Washington Post.
More than 40 missiles have struck Kharkiv this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday.
