(AP) – A disgraced former Russian mayor convicted of bribery has had his sentence reduced after signing a deal to fight Russian troops in Ukraine, local media reported Sunday.
Oleg Gumenyuk, who served as mayor of the Far Eastern city and cultural capital Vladivostok from 2018 to 2021, was found guilty last year of accepting bribes worth 38 million rubles (about $432,000). He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
But he was released after agreeing to take up arms and fight as part of a military operation in Ukraine that began about two years ago, his lawyer Andrei Kitayev told Russian news agency Kommersant.
His whereabouts are unknown, but Gumenyuk said he has been instructed to report to the force on December 22.
Local officials at the federal prison in Primorsky Krai, where the former mayor was being held, did not confirm the report.
Photos circulating on social media show a man resembling Gumenyuk holding a gun and surrounded by other military personnel.
'Cannon fodder' – U.S. officials claim Ukraine and Russia have suffered nearly 500,000 casualtieshttps://t.co/Mn5npvAvJh
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Russia has made extraordinary efforts to replenish its forces in Ukraine, including sending thousands of prisoners directly from Ukrainian prisons. Prisoners who have served six months on the front lines will be granted amnesty upon their return.
This is not the first time authorities have used such a tactic, with the Soviet Union employing “prisoner of war battalions” during World War II.
Shelling continued on Sunday in a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Kherson, leaving six people wounded by the region's junta on Sunday.
A drone crashed into a fire station in the Kherson region, injuring four firefighters.
Meanwhile, Kursk Oblast Governor Roman Starovoit said on social media that a Ukrainian drone attack had injured one person in the Russian border village of Tetkino.
