Russian military man blew up headquarters with officers and defected to Ukraine: DIU details of Operation Reed. Photo

A 24-year-old Russian serviceman with the call sign "Silver" blew up the headquarters of the Storm Zet battalion officers, crossed the front line to the Ukrainian side and joined the ranks of the Russian Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He managed to do this thanks to a successful operation codenamed "Reeds" by the "I Want to Live" project and the Legion "Freedom of Russia."

The details of the special operation were reported by the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine. The video in which the Russian told his story was also released by the I Want to Live project.

According to him, he specifically signed a contract with the Russian army in order to cross the front line to the Ukrainian side and join the ranks of the Freedom of Russia Legion. Before that, he contacted representatives of the LSR in a chatbot.

After becoming a contract soldier, the Russian ended up in the middle of hell – one of the Storm suicide units. There he saw the "charms" of the Russian army: complete lawlessness, devaluation of human life, lack of training, lack of supplies, sadistic commanders who routinely "zeroed out" soldiers for the slightest offense, and so on.

These systematic war crimes and other crimes in the occupation unit further encouraged the Russian to cooperate with Ukraine.

He was trained as a pilot of FPV drones, and in the winter of 2024, he got in touch with the Russian Freedom Legion.

"Silver" was a member of the resistance for several months and passed important operational information to the Freedom of Russia Legion about the location of the Russian army's forces and means, plans, tasks in a particular area of the front, and other information.

"In the framework of cooperation with the Russian serviceman, Ukraine was able to obtain valuable intelligence on the location, number, and intentions of the enemy in a particular direction of the front," the DIU noted.

In May 2024, choosing a convenient moment, Silver threw a grenade into the ventilation pipe of the basement of the headquarters, where the battalion commander and other Russian officers were spending the night.

"There were about 15 people in the basement. In this room, there was a pipe right above the bed where the commander was sleeping. It went out into the street next to the entrance, and we decided to throw a grenade or two into this pipe so that they would explode next to them," the Russian said.

As a result of the explosion, the commander and several senior officers of the Storm unit were seriously injured.

When the deed was done, the Russian fled along a pre-agreed route with the LSR and the "I Want to Live" team, who organized his exit from the contact line. On his way out, he mined the path he was taking.

The operation took place near the town of Ocheretyno, Donetsk region, and was codenamed "Ocheret".

Now the Russian is undergoing basic training as a recruit of the Legion "Freedom of Russia" to fight against the criminal Putin regime.

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