Soldier gets 7 years for desertion, APC hijacking – SBI

11:42, 09.07.2025 1 min read

The Sumy District Court has found a serviceman from one of the region's units guilty of desertion and theft of military equipment and sentenced him to 7 years in prison, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) has reported.

On Telegram on Wednesday, the SBI noted that in January 2025, a serviceman who served as a driver of special equipment voluntarily left the military unit.

"Under the pretext of refueling the armored personnel carrier (APC), he left the unit in an armored personnel carrier, taking a machine gun with him, and headed home to the Poltava region. After traveling several hundred kilometers on public roads, he left the armored personnel carrier on the side of the road near the village and went to sleep in the forest belt," the report says.

SBI employees, together with the military law enforcement service and the SBU, promptly detained the deserter.

According to the Bureau, the stolen armored personnel carrier and weapons were returned to the military unit.