A Ukrainian soldier who switched sides at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and was subsequently captured at the beginning of the counteroffensive in June, has been arrested and faces life in prison for high treason.

Ukraine’s SBU security service and the State Bureau of Investigation have gathered evidence against the unnamed State Border Guard Service officer, the SBU’s press service reported on Aug. 22.

The border guard was captured by Ukrainian soldiers during fighting near the village of Neskuchne in Donetsk Oblast.

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According to the SBU, the suspect served as the head of the rocket and artillery department of the Novotroitske rapid response office in Donetsk Oblast.

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The SBU said that in early March 2022, the suspect abandoned his post and fled to the temporarily occupied village of Nikolske, in the Mariupol District of Donetsk Oblast, where his relatives lived.

There, he had an interview with representatives of the Russian special services and the Russian army command, and agreed to join the "Ministry of Internal Affairs of the DPR" — part of the sham authorities Russia set up in the occupied part of Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.

He subsequently took direct part in hostilities against the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the southern front near the Mariupol axis.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine