The Termez City Criminal Court has handed down a verdict against a 30-year-old man who participated in Russia's war against Ukraine.
According to the case files, the man traveled to Russia in 2022 seeking employment and found work at a commercial bakery in the Lyubertsy district of the Moscow region.
In July 2023, he accepted an acquaintance's offer to drive to Voronezh in a rented car. During the trip, while the car was stopped and his acquaintance had gone into a shop, plainclothes police officers approached the vehicle. A search uncovered narcotics in his acquaintance's possession, resulting in the arrest of both men. The defendant was subsequently sentenced to nine years in prison and sent to a penal colony in Lipetsk.
The man testified that during his imprisonment, correctional facility staff subjected him to both psychological and physical abuse to force him into signing a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense.
After ultimately signing the contract in August 2025, he and roughly 30 other inmates were deployed to Nizhny Novgorod for combat training. Over the course of a month, they were trained in trench maneuvers, live-fire shooting, drone evasion techniques, and motorized squad tactics. Upon completion, he was issued an AK-74 assault rifle, a military uniform, and body armor before being deployed directly to the combat zone.
The defendant stated that his primary duty was delivering rations to front-line troops. He would collect supplies from a warehouse and transport them—either on foot or by motorcycle—over a distance of two to three kilometers to the forward positions. In November 2025, during one of these supply runs, he and a fellow soldier came under a drone attack. The defendant sustained severe shrapnel wounds to his left hand, left shoulder, and both legs. Although a tourniquet was applied to stem the bleeding, he was left stranded in that condition for roughly three days. His comrade did not survive.
The defendant was subsequently transported to a military hospital in Luhansk, where he underwent treatment for 10 to 15 days. Following this brief recovery, he stated that severe personnel shortages forced the command to redeploy him to a training ground, where his physical condition rapidly deteriorated. In January 2026, while being evacuated to a hospital in Belgorod, he managed to escape during a transport stop and fled to Moscow.
The defendant testified that his passport had been confiscated upon arrival. Although recruiters had promised him a monthly salary of 192,000 rubles and fast-tracked Russian citizenship, neither promise was fulfilled. He further noted that the bank card issued to him after signing the contract was immediately seized by his commanders under the pretext of a "security check." They later claimed the card was blocked and contained no funds. He was ultimately able to return home to Uzbekistan thanks to emergency consular support provided by the Uzbek Embassy.
In determining the sentence, the court took several mitigating factors into account. These included the defendant’s combat injuries, his ongoing need for medical rehabilitation, his clean prior criminal record in Uzbekistan, and his status as the sole breadwinner for his family.
The man’s actions were legally classified under Part 1 of Article 154 (Mercenary Activity) and Part 2 of Article 154–1 (Recruitment of a Citizen of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Military Service of Foreign States) of the Criminal Code.
Accounting for the cumulative nature of the offenses, the court sentenced him to 4 years and 6 months of restricted freedom, to be served at his place of residence. Under the terms of his sentence, he is permitted to leave his home only to attend work and receive medical treatment. Additionally, he faces a strict travel ban prohibiting him from leaving the Surkhondaryo province.
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