Decrying Ukraine war, Russian soldier seeks refuge in France
By LORI HINNANT
Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — A fugitive Russian paratrooper who published a book online denouncing his government and military is seeking refuge in France. Pavel Filatiev was part of a Russian unit that seized the Ukrainian port city of Kherson early in the war. He spent two months in Ukraine before he was discharged with an eye injury. He says he spent his last weeks in Ukraine promising he’d tell the world the truth about what he experienced. Filatiev, who is the son of a soldier, says Russia has betrayed its troops through incompetence and corruption and he publicly denounced the war in Ukraine. He fled Russia in late August.
