Two deserters have been charged with double murder in the Kharkiv region
Police in Korosten have detained two military personnel who, in January, left their unit without authorization while in possession of weapons and committed the murder of two people in the Chuhuiv district of Kharkiv Oblast.
This was reported by the Main Directorate of the National Police in Zhytomyr Oblast.
During searches of the hideout of a 38-year-old resident of Zhytomyr Oblast and a 26-year-old native of Dnipro, an automatic rifle, an assault rifle, and 174 rounds of ammunition were seized. According to the investigation, the victims were the homeowner, who had been reported missing, and another deserter from the ranks of the National Guard of Ukraine.
Law enforcement officers discovered the bodies of the deceased, showing signs of violent death, in a utility room in the Kharkiv region after receiving operational information from their colleagues in Zhytomyr. Both suspects had prior convictions for robbery, drug-related crimes, and attempted murder. Currently, the detainees have been placed under pretrial detention without the right to bail.
Investigators have charged the suspects with the intentional murder of two people and illegal possession of weapons. On March 26, 2026, they were officially notified of the charges under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The maximum penalty the men face for their crimes is life imprisonment. Investigative actions to establish all the circumstances of the crime are ongoing under the procedural supervision of the prosecutor’s office.
The State Bureau of Investigations detained an active-duty servicemember who had deserted his unit (SZCH) in the Mykolaiv region and was hiding in the capital. The man was exposed after a video appeared online in which he spoke disparagingly about the public memorial to the defenders of Ukraine in central Kyiv.
The SBU’s Counterintelligence Directorate successfully prevented a terrorist attack in the center of Kropyvnytskyi by detaining a deserter—an agent of the Russian special services—while he was preparing an assassination attempt on a government official.
