Mentally unfit soldier remains elusive after deadly rampage
For a month and a half, in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, Russian security services have been unable to capture a prisoner recruited to the front who shot ten of his comrades. Journalists from "Sibir.Realii" determined that he was previously diagnosed with mental disorders that made him unfit for service in combat units.
Russian Maxim Fedorchenko, previously sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for causing severe bodily harm, signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence and was deployed to the so-called special military operation. The man was diagnosed with a mild impairment, due to which he should not have been allowed to serve in the military.
He killed his colleagues. The search continues
On October 26, while in the area of the village of Basan (in the Polohy district of the Zaporizhzhia region, occupied by the Russian Armed Forces), he threw a grenade into a bunker and then opened fire with a rifle, killing 11 comrades (other sources report ten dead and one seriously wounded).
Fedorchenko fled the scene, taking a weapon with him.
"In the case of information about his whereabouts, citizens were asked to immediately contact the military command," was the notice published on November 1 in the local edition of "Moskovsky Komsomolets" in Vladivostok.
A wanted notice was issued for Fedorchenko, and he was also entered into the federal wanted database in Russia.
According to the portal, at the end of 2023, Fedorchenko attacked his wife. He was in prison for some time, and when a court verdict was issued in 2024, he went to the front, joining the "Storm V" unit (a penal military unit established by Russia on June 24, 2023, right after the creation of the Storm-Z units).
He served as a private, senior assistant grenade launcher operator in the second assault company "B" of the 3rd mechanized battalion of the 38th independent guards airborne assault brigade, part of the 35th Army of the Eastern Military District.
The Telegram channel "WChK-OGPU" contacted Fedorchenko's wife. She said that he called her after the shooting and asked her to "trust no one," claiming he didn't kill anyone.
The wife suspects that the shooting might have resulted from an argument during prolonged alcohol consumption. She added that Fedorchenko should not drink because it was alcohol that landed him in prison – out of jealousy over a neighbour, he poured boiling water on her and stabbed her four times with a knife. After regaining consciousness, he called an ambulance for his wife.
Despite the federal wanted notice, it is possible that the escaped prisoner is still in contact with someone. One of his profiles on the "Odnoklassniki" social network was active on November 17, three weeks after the shooting.
Ukrainian military analyst Igal Levin is not surprised that the escaped prisoner who shot his comrades has not been caught yet.
- The Zaporizhzhia region is a vast area with many villages. You cannot place a platoon of the FSB in every village. Russian services conduct raids there, but finding one deserter is like looking for a needle in a haystack, explains Levin.
Two interlocutors of "Sibir.Realii" – a correspondent from a Russian media outlet visiting Russian positions in Ukraine and an employee of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs – confirmed that capturing even a particularly dangerous criminal in the occupied territories of Ukraine is a difficult task.
- No wonder. Sometimes, people live under federal searches for years and do not even hide. A month and a half is not long. If they didn't catch him in the first days, he's probably hiding somewhere. Or he might have even headed toward Ukraine. He has nothing left to lose. The personnel in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions are in a tragic state; there is a shortage of people for service, says the employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
