Russian Officer Passed Information To The AFU About The Occupants For Seven Months
- 12.09.2025, 22:17
He subsequently defected to Ukraine and joined the RDK.
Former Russian officer Lev Stupnikov passed information to the Ukrainian Defense Forces for seven months about the location of Russian invaders. The information Stupnikov relayed helped the Ukrainian Armed Forces successfully strike Russian military personnel at a training range near Volnovakha in the Donetsk region. Stupnikov subsequently crossed the front line under the guidance of Ukrainian scouts. Now he serves in the Russian Volunteer Corps, defending Ukraine.
Stupnikov told this in an interview with Ukrainian blogger Dmitry Karpenko.
What is known about Stupnikov?
Russian Lev Stupnikov was born in Kazakhstan. When Lev was 12 years old, he moved with his mother and sister to the Russian city of Omsk.
After the 8th grade, his mother gave her son to study at the Omsk Cadet Corps. Stupnikov dreamed of becoming a pilot, but faced corruption, so he did not go to study.
Subsequently, he applied to the Polytechnic University to specialize in "design of rocket engines", but almost did not study, so he was expelled from the 3rd year. In 2018, he entered the Military Academy of Communications in St. Petersburg, specializing in "multichannel telecommunication systems".
According to Lev, when the Russian Federation began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine propaganda in the academy worked at full capacity. The man said that many of his classmates wanted to go to the front. The key motivation was money.
Stupnikov said that about six months before graduation, he made a final decision: if sent to war, he would surrender to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
At the end of April 2023, Lev graduated from the academy with the rank of lieutenant. Subsequently, he was assigned to the 36th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian Federation. Arriving in the unit, he was immediately appointed commander of the communications battalion.
According to the man, he wanted to be sent to Ukraine as soon as possible. In November 2023, after a short course as a UAV operator, Lev found himself in the area of Ugledar, Donetsk region.
In early 2024, Stupnikov wrote to Ukrainian blogger Dmitry Karpenko (Apostol project), and since then his cooperation with the Ukrainian military began.
The first of the most iconic episodes of Stupnikov's cooperation with the AFU was the transfer of information about the deployment of the Russian military at a firing range near Volnovakha in Donetschina. Thanks to the information transferred from Stupnikov, the AFU struck the enemy training ground at the moment when the occupants were conducting a formation. Russian Telegram channels at that time wrote about 65 liquidated occupants.
In addition, Lev passed information to the AFU about the location of a group of Russian Storm-Z attackers, recruited from former prisoners. Stupnikov also passed information to the Ukrainian military about concentrations of enemy vehicles.
As a result, during the seven months of his work, the 36th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian Federation was unable to advance "not a meter" on its section of the front.
On July 7, 2024, Stupnikov's evacuation was organized under the "I Want to Live" program. Lev was helped to leave the positions of the occupants by Ukrainian scouts. He left his position and walked through a minefield, under the supervision of a Ukrainian drone, to meet a Ukrainian reconnaissance group.
The man defected to the Ukrainian side and joined one of the units of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's GUR, namely the Russian Volunteer Corps, where he serves to this day.
Subsequently, the "I Want to Live" project helped organize the departure of his mother and sister from Russia. They left everything behind and moved to Ukraine. Stupnikov's wife refused to move to Ukraine.