Stole an APC and drove home: a soldier in Sumy region sentenced to 7 years in prison
Kyiv • UNN
The Sumy District Court sentenced a serviceman to seven years in prison for desertion and theft of military equipment. The man arbitrarily left his unit in an APC, taking an assault rifle, and headed home to Poltava region.
The Sumy District Court found a serviceman of one of the units stationed in the region guilty of desertion and theft of military equipment. The man was sentenced to seven years behind bars, UNN writes with reference to the State Bureau of Investigation.
In January 2025, the serviceman, who served as a special equipment driver, arbitrarily left the military unit. Under the pretext of refueling an armored personnel carrier, he drove the APC out of the unit's territory, taking an assault rifle with him, and headed home to Poltava region.
It is reported that the offender covered several hundred kilometers on public roads. After that, he left the APC on the roadside near the village and went to sleep in a forest belt.
SBI employees, together with the military law enforcement service and the SBU, promptly detained the deserter. The stolen armored personnel carrier and weapons were returned to the military unit.
The court found the serviceman guilty of desertion and theft of military equipment committed under martial law (Part 4 of Article 408, Part 4 of Article 410 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). He was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment.
Addition
Two men, posing as police officers, threatened with weapons and took servicemen out of a bus, receiving $5,000 for each for staging the detention. The perpetrators were detained in the Kyiv region, and weapons and documents were seized.