Two groups of re-offenders have escaped from a military training ground near Belgorod, Russia, according to Russian news agencies. The convicts were recruited by the Ministry of Defense and fled from the training ground in the town of Koroch, Belgorod region. The news outlet Agenstvo uncovered their criminal records. At least seven out of the nine former prisoners turned out to be repeat offenders.

The news outlet Pepel has published information about the escaped military personnel. According to the reports, six of them left the training ground on July 26, and three more escaped on July 27. Two of the escapees were imprisoned for murder, three for causing serious bodily harm, and the rest for crimes including illegal detention, drug use, fraud, and theft.

Authorities believe the former convicts could now be in Belgorod or Shebekino. The town of Koroch, where the training ground is located, is 50 km from Belgorod.

Analysis by Agenstvi reveals that four of the six individuals who escaped on July 26 were natives of the Ulyanovsk region, with one more person residing there. Among them, 23-year-old Denis Mustyakov had been sentenced to 9 years in a maximum-security prison for stabbing a man 15 times during a fight in 2020. According to the Telegram channel "Storm Z," he was recruited from Penal Colony No. 10 in Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk region, in January 2024.

Another escaped convict from the first group, 36-year-old Roman Ser, was sentenced in 2019 to 9 years and 4 months in a maximum-security colony for fatally assaulting a man. Witness testimonies in the court case revealed that Ser severely beat the victim, including stomping on his head. He had previously been convicted for illegal fishing.

The first group also included 41-year-old Nikolai Bagrov (convicted of theft, carjacking, and illegal detention) and 24-year-old Igor Bolonin (robbery, causing minor bodily harm, and fraud), both natives of Ulyanovsk region.

The fifth escapee’s name might be misspelled in the published desctiption as "Arutunyan" instead of "Arutyunyan." According to leaked information, he is a Moscow native who last served a sentence in Ulyanovsk. In 2020, he was sentenced to four years in a maximum-security colony for theft and previously had convictions for threats of murder, home invasion, robbery, carjacking, and theft.

The sixth participant from the first group, Pavel Migunov, is from the Saratov region. Leaks show that the 24-year-old had multiple theft convictions. In 2016, the Balashov district police in Saratov region reported him as a juvenile delinquent with three offenses already on record.

All three who fled the training ground on July 27 are natives of the Primorsky Krai and members of military unit No. 71289 (the 83rd Separate Air Assault Brigade stationed in Ussuriysk), according to the alert. Leaked information indicates that at least two of them (Kasatkin and Griaziutin) were serving time in a maximum-security colony No. 41 in Ussuriysk in 2020. Griaziutin, a repeat offender, was previously convicted for drunk driving, theft, and carjacking. In 2010, he was conditionally released but soon rearrested for murder, leading to a 20-year sentence in a maximum-security colony after attacking a man with a crowbar, throwing his body into a well, and stealing his Toyota Corona.

Kasatkin and the last escapee, Alexander Ivanov, were convicted of causing grievous bodily harm. "Agency" leaks also reveal that Kasatkin had theft charges and, in 2018, was convicted of assaulting a police officer. Ivanov had multiple arrests for robbery and theft.

Medizona called one of the contact numbers listed in the alerts and reached a man who refused to disclose his position but stated that three of the nine escapees had "returned voluntarily." "The rest, we'll wait till they run out of money and finish drinking vodka," he remarked.

  Russia, Belgorod

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