Russian Officer Shared Secret Information with Ukraine and Crossed the Frontline to Join Kyiv

26-year-old Lieutenant Lev Stupnikov, serving in the Russian army, played a role in the deaths of more than 300 Russian soldiers by transferring secret combat plans and intelligence to Ukrainian forces. Stupnikov crossed the frontline to defect to the Ukrainian side and joined the Russian Volunteer Corps, which fights against the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Lieutenant Lev Stupnikov, a graduate of the Budyonny Military Communications Academy, was assigned as a communications officer to a battalion tasked with capturing the Vuhledar stronghold in the Donbas region. His duty was to connect commanders with their units and retrieve information from surveillance systems. However, Stupnikov provided secret military information to Ukrainian intelligence, sharing Russian positions and planned movements. One morning in eastern Ukraine, after claiming to suffer from stomach cramps and moving away from the soldiers, Ukrainian missiles struck the coordinates he shared. In this attack, 68 Russian soldiers, including Colonel Gusein Musayev, lost their lives, and 60 soldiers were injured.

Behind Stupnikov turning his back on the Russian army was his dissatisfaction with the invasion that began in February 2022. His mother, Tatiana Yantsen, also opposed Putin and, in February 2024, three months after her son served at the front, she contacted Dmytro Karpenko, a computer programmer working with Ukrainian military intelligence.

In July 2024, escaping from his Russian unit in the dead of night, Stupnikov reached a wooded area where soldiers belonging to Ukraine's 72nd Brigade were located after about a 40-minute walk. Giving the pre-arranged password "peanut shop", he went into Ukrainian custody. Stupnikov currently serves as a communications specialist in the Russian Volunteer Corps, which consists of ethnic Russians fighting against the Putin regime.