The border guard, warrant officer Yaroslav Shevelyuk (call sign "Sheva"), told Russian security forces that the former commander of his unit, Lieutenant Zabiyaka, suffered from a gambling addiction.
"He borrowed money from people, substantial amounts, and played casino games on his phone. Then something happened, his phone was hacked, something went wrong, he was sent to another location. And he still hasn't returned the money to the people," Shevelyuk said.
A group of six Ukrainian State Border Service officers surrendered to Russia on Orthodox Christmas Eve on the border with the Belgorod Region in the Kharkov direction, a source in the Russian security services told Sputnik. Shevelyuk, a border guard inspector of the highest category, was among those who surrendered.
Earlier in the week, two other captured Ukrainian border guards from the group said in a video obtained by Sputnik that drug use and drinking to death were rampant among Ukrainian servicepeople amid their extreme fatigue and poor mental well-being.