He outsmarted Putin: this Russian fought on both sides in Ukraine

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Standstill at the front, resistance to arms deliveries, a harsh winter of war ahead: the omens are bad for Ukraine. And yet Russian soldier Mischa Pavlov (24) says with conviction: “Ukraine will win the war 200 percent.”

The Russian with the long eyelashes and the tattooed gallows noose around his neck knows a lot about this war. He is one of the few people who fought on both sides in Ukraine: first for Putin, then for Ukraine. In between lies the escape across the front into the hands of the enemy, a story that resembles a Hollywood film. She was able to verify it.

Misha Pavlov was imprisoned in his Russian hometown of Ivanovo for over a year for openly criticizing Putin’s war. Solitary confinement, brutal conditions, constant humiliation: the former insurance salesman knew he had to get out of here somehow.

The war spy’s trick

When the recruiters of the prisoner group ‘Storm-Z’, a kind of ‘Wagner’ twin brother, came to his prison in the spring and promised exemption from punishment for six months of military service in Ukraine, he volunteered. His plan: desert as quickly as possible and join the Russian Volunteer Corps in Ukraine, an association of Russian citizens fighting on Kiev’s side.

After a short training he was sent to the front north of Mariupol. “We stayed there for ten days, without ammunition and without food,” says Pavlov. He walked along the front and remembered the locations of military depots and command posts. “When someone asked me what I was doing here, I said: looking for food.” No one suspected that they were all starving. Simple game for a war spy.

Finally, on the night of June 27, he volunteered to ‘reconnoiter’ a particularly dangerous part of the front. Pavlov grabbed a comrade and ran towards the Ukrainian positions. They shot at him for seven hours. His Russian companion died. But Pavlov was taken alive by the Ukrainians. A photo shows him in the back of a truck the next morning: blindfolded, hands tied. The Russian, whom everyone in Ukraine knows only by his nickname ‘Persian’, had done it.

Ukrainian intelligence checked his story. His information about the Russian positions around the village of Pryjutne turned out to be true. Press was welcomed by the volunteer corps. Since then, he has fought alongside those he once waged war against. «Being a Ukrainian is a psychological state. Your passport doesn’t matter,” says Pavlov. “I will die for this country if I have to.”

On the phone he says to his brother: “Come forward.”

And when his father and brother call him every now and then and insult him, he answers them: “I don’t have time to argue with you. But don’t be cowards, come forward and we’ll solve it there.” His family has become the enemy. To stop Russia, he would kill them, says Misha Pavlov. “My mother too.”

We walk through the Kiev suburb of Irpin, which the Russians attacked in March 2022. The young man, who almost cynically presents himself on Instagram as a ‘radical peacemaker’ and who has fought for months at the toughest parts of the front, is on crutches. On October 30 he was hit by a grenade near Avdiivka. Broken foot, morale boosted: he has to miss four months, after which he wants to get back to work with the weapons. “Just look at the destruction my fellow countrymen are causing to Ukraine,” says Pers, pointing to a bombed house.

He has only one message for Putin: “Good evening from Ukraine. Come here and ask people how much they want to be rid of you. You will be amazed at what they have to say to you!” But his message to the Russian soldiers was more important. “Gather information, remember your positions, call the hotline that Ukraine has set up specifically for deserters. This is your ticket to freedom!”

Source: Blick