The great-grandson of Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, was captured while fighting in Ukraine, Russian media has claimed.

Anton Milaev, 45, joined the Russian army as a sapper, or combat engineer, in autumn last year, but had fallen out of contact with his family by November, according to Baza, a Telegram channel known for its ties to the Russian security services.

The outlet said it was told by Irina Kuznetsova, Mr Milaev’s mother, that she had received news some months later that Ukrainian soldiers had captured her son and were holding him in custody in the Kherson region.

Mr Milaev is the adopted grandson of Galina Brezhneva, who was the daughter of Brezhnev and Viktoria Brezhneva, his wife.

Mr Milaev’s name appears in Myrotvorets, a Ukrainian online database of individuals considered to be “enemies of Ukraine”. Run by anonymous operators, the website, whose name translates as “Peacemaker”, lists the names and often personal information of soldiers, alleged war criminals, Russian federal security service agents and people perceived to be spreading pro-Russian narratives.

The blacklist, which has alleged links to Ukraine’s security services, described Mr Milaev as the “great-grandson of Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev” and says “he went to kill Ukrainians voluntarily, having concluded a contract with the Russian Federation in autumn 2025”.

It described him as having been “taken prisoner”, citing the Baza report.

The report has not been verified. There has been no official comment from Kyiv.

However, a source in Ukraine’s main directorate of intelligence confirmed to BBC News Ukraine that Mr Milaev had been taken into captivity. Serhii Sternenko, an adviser to the defence ministry, also posted about the capture. Moscow does not publicise the identities of its soldiers captured in Ukraine.

Mr Milaev’s call sign was “luck”, according to a photo on his Vkontakte page.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said in February that more than 4,000 Russians were being held in Ukraine, compared to around 7,000 Ukrainians in Russian captivity.

He reiterated on Friday that Kyiv was prepared to conduct an “all-for-all” prisoner exchange, which it had been pushing for since the start of the war. Russia has so far rejected such proposals.

Brezhnev served as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and his death in 1982, making his duration in power second only to Joseph Stalin’s in the history of the Soviet Union.

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