A 36-year-old Russian serviceman suspected of killing five Ukrainian soldiers and a local fishing enthusiast has been detained in Kharkiv, the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office stated. The detainee is reportedly a native of St. Petersburg and a serviceman of the second battalion of the Russian army’s 1009th Motorized Rifle Regiment. According to data from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), he had previously been convicted in Russia. As The Insider established, his regiment included inmates recruited in Russian prison colonies, and the unit has frequently been mentioned in reports about Russia’s heavy personnel losses in Ukraine.
On Oct. 13, an armed man walked into the village of Momotove in Ukraine’s Kharkiv Region, broke into a private house where servicemen of the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade were temporarily quartered, and opened fire. All five tenants were killed. After that, the attacker got rid of his assault rifle and headed through a tree belt toward Kharkiv.
Initially, Ukrainian media named neighboring Kutuzivka as the site of the killing. Sources at Suspilne reported another Ukrainian serviceman wounded in Momotove. However, in a subsequent statement, prosecutors named Momotove specifically as the site of the killing of the five Ukrainian soldiers.
The suspect was detained on the evening of Oct. 14 in Kharkiv. As head of Ukraine’s National Police Ivan Vyhivskyi stated, the search for the perpetrator involved special forces, analysts, investigators, SBU agents, prosecutors, the National Guard, and military police. Participants in the search operation combed an area spanning dozens of square kilometers in order to cover the attacker’s likely routes of movement.
Suspilne Kharkiv writes that Russian servicemen who escaped from captivity may have been involved in the killing. KHARKIV Today named one of the alleged escapees — 21-year-old Mikhail Lebedkin from the Sverdlovsk Region. However, according to the SBU, the detainee is a 36-year-old native of St. Petersburg. Ukrainian law enforcement has not yet confirmed that the suspect was in captivity and has not reported the involvement of other persons in the attack.
According to the Ukrainian investigation, the man may have been part of a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group. To avoid detection, he changed into civilian clothes and headed toward Kharkiv. In the Tsyrkuny community, he met a local resident fishing near a body of water. Investigators believe the Russian serviceman shot him for fear of being exposed. An examination of the victim’s body revealed a through gunshot wound to the head.
What we know about the detainee’s regiment
The 1009th Motorized Rifle Regiment was formed mostly from residents of the Pskov and Tver regions after Vladimir Putin announced mobilization in 2022. In June 2023, the unit fought against the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion in Russia’s Belgorod Region — a campaign in which several regiment members were captured, and commander Vladimir Kuznetsov, call sign Ulan, was killed.
In May 2024, relatives of the regiment’s servicemen complained to the Pskovskaya Guberniya outlet about the command’s actions during the offensive on Vovchansk in Kharkiv Region. According to them, mobilized soldiers were sent into assaults without sufficient supplies or training. As a result, the unit suffered heavy losses.
In October 2024, Pskovskaya Guberniya published an investigation into the disappearance of 76 servicemen of the regiment near Vovchansk. A relative of one of the missing fighters said that one unit included numerous inmates recruited directly from prison colonies, along with convicts who had been given suspended sentences. According to her, soldiers from other units who had displeased their command could also be sent there. Journalists found that two former Ukrainian-held prisoners of war from this regiment, who returned to Russia in an exchange, were sent to war again and subsequently left their unit without authorization.
According to the SBU, the Russian serviceman detained in Kharkiv had a prior conviction. However, the agency did not specify the charges against him, nor did it disclose whether he had served a sentence in a prison colony or how he ended up serving in the army. There is no confirmation yet of his connection to the inmates mentioned in the Pskovskaya Guberniya investigation.
