The Russian told why he decided to fight against his homeland.

A Russian serviceman from the missile ship Serpukhov deliberately sabotaged the ship, stole secret documents and escaped, after which he joined the Russian Freedom Legion. As a result, the ship went out of order for months and could not use the Caliber against Ukraine. Sky News reports .

As is known, the Legion of Freedom of Russia was created in 2022 after the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Among its fighters are former servicemen of the Russian army and navy, and the unit itself often operates jointly with the Ukrainian military. Much of the Legion’s activities remain classified.

The publication’s journalists spoke with three legionnaires who told what it means to fight against their own homeland. One of them is the saboteur Goga, who set fire to a Russian ship.

Goga said that he was categorically against the very idea of ​​killing Ukrainians and therefore put everything on the line to join the legion while still serving in the Russian navy.Read also:

Wanted to be discharged from service

He was born into a military family and grew up in Kaliningrad. It was there that he served as a radio operator on the missile ship Serpukhov when the full-scale invasion began. The Buyan-class corvette was armed with the Kalibr and Zircon missiles that Russia used to strike Ukrainian cities throughout the war.

Goga says he tried to convince his fellow soldiers that the invasion was wrong. It all ended with him being summoned to the military prosecutor’s office and given an official warning, and his request to resign from service was rejected:

“After I had exhausted all possible legal ways to leave the army, I no longer knew what to do or how to obtain a discharge from service.”

According to him, rumors began to spread that several ships were going to be sent to the combat zone to launch missiles at targets in Ukraine. Goga says he understood that he had almost no time left.

Not wanting to participate in the murder of Ukrainians, he learned about the Russian Freedom Legion and applied to join. After extensive correspondence and checks to confirm that Goga was indeed who he claimed to be, a plan was developed to sabotage the ship and transport him to Ukraine.

Sabotage on a ship

Constantly looking around and fearing exposure, he carefully collected secret documents and smuggled canisters of gasoline onto the ship. Finally, it was time to act:

“I started bringing fuel into the communications compartment and pouring it over the equipment. Before that, I gathered all the classified documents and took them with me.”

He said he set a timer to start the fire, grabbed the documents, and left the ship, then took a taxi to the Lithuanian border. Behind him, the fire engulfed the Russian ship’s command center, destroying communications equipment. The ship was then put out of action and could not fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainians for several months.

When journalists asked Goga whether he had killed Russians after he ended up in Ukraine, and how he felt about it, he initially fell silent.

“I feel nothing but relief that fewer people in Ukraine will die,” he later said.

When asked what he would say to Russian servicemen if he could address them now, Goga replied: “Run, you fools. You will die.” The legionnaire says he wants to see Russia freed from the man who has ruled it for more than two decades.

“Simply put, tear down the entire system and build it from scratch,” he added.

Contribution of the Legion “Freedom of Russia” 

The number of people serving in the legion is kept secret, but it is believed to be in the hundreds. It is led by Maximilian Andronnikov, call sign Caesar. 

As journalists told us, he hails from St. Petersburg, calls himself a “right-wing nationalist” and believes that Russia can only be freed from Putin by force. At the same time, he claims that “Freedom of Russia” “adheres to moderate centrist views.” At the same time, the legion itself emphasizes that it opposes authoritarianism and is for democracy.

Olesya Goryainova, co-founder of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation think tank, says the Legion’s ideology is “anti-imperialist.” In addition to its “instrumental” role in heavy Ukrainian operations in the Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod regions, the Legion has had a “huge” influence on information warfare, she says.

“Putin has been claiming from the very beginning of this war that he has 100% support from the Russians – this unit demonstrates very clearly that this is not true,” she stressed.

Legion “Freedom of Russia”

UNIAN previously wrote about Shamil (Shmel) Lukozhev, a fighter of the “Freedom of Russia” legion from Ossetia, who answered the question of what would happen if Putin were killed . According to him, in that case “the entire people of the Russian Federation would only thank you.” The fighter noted that he would never believe that Ukraine wanted to attack Russia, seize some territories, etc., because “it is clear to everyone that as of 2022, Ukraine did not have such forces.” 

We also reported that in 2025, the Russian Freedom Legion burned dozens of locomotives transporting weapons for the Russian Federation. According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s GUR, these strikes significantly slowed down the movement of enemy resources and affected the stability of the Russian army’s units at the front.

(C)UNIAN 2026