Another Russian officer asked for asylum in Lithuania

Another Russian officer fled to Lithuania and asked for political asylum there. According to the Russian service of the BBC, his name is Ivan Korolev, he is a lieutenant of artillery troops. Korolev said that he left Russia because he did not want to take part “in the bloody war unleashed by the state.”

The lieutenant told the BBC correspondent that he was not directly in Ukraine, but his unit was engaged in supplying Russian troops with ammunition.

He crossed the border with Lithuania illegally, and on August 10 he was detained by border guards at the bus station in Vilnius. On August 11, he was sent to a migration center, where he will be kept while his asylum application is considered.

• In June, Russian combat aviation pilot Dmitry Myshov fled to Lithuania by a similar route. He also said that he does not agree to participate in the Ukrainian war. He was allowed to live in Lithuania while his documents are being processed.
• Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, EU countries have been discussing whether they should grant political asylum to Russians who refuse to fight – both military personnel and “refusals” from mobilization. There is no consensus on this issue. A number of German ministers said that Germany would grant temporary asylum to Russian citizens avoiding mobilization. At the same time, several EU countries, for example, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia, opposed providing protection to evaders.