A former chief spokesperson for Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy giant, is fighting in Ukraine – against Russia – and has just ditched his Russian passport for a Ukrainian one.
Ihor Volobuyev, 53, told Sky News he was wounded in action last year near the eastern city of Bakhmut but is back on the frontline and has just learnt how to operate killer drones.
“I believe that until we kick Putin’s backside, we can’t think about anything else,” he said, speaking via video link from the northeastern Kharkiv region.
“I will serve in the armed forces of Ukraine for as long as I have the strength, opportunity and health – and I’m fine with that.”
Moscow has issued an arrest warrant for the former Gazprom executive
Despite spending the majority of his adult years in Moscow, Mr Volobuyev said he always regarded himself as Ukrainian because he was born during Soviet times in a town in the Ukrainian region of Sumy, adjacent to Kharkiv.
He studied at university in Moscow and then had a brief career as a journalist before joining the media department of Gazprom, one of Russia‘s biggest and most powerful companies.
Alexey Miller, its chief executive, is a close friend and ally of President Vladimir Putin.
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Mr Volobuyev said he was Gazprom’s chief spokesperson until after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 – an attack he opposed.
This was a risky stance for anyone in Russia let alone a senior official in a public-facing role at a major company like Gazprom.
He said Gazprom bosses – aware of his views – transferred him out of the heart of the business and made him a vice president of Gazprombank “where I no longer had any influence”.
He remained in that position until President Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 – a move that triggered his defection.
Mr Volobuyev says the full-scale invasion was the last straw for him
“My friends and acquaintances from Ukraine began to write, to call, and I immediately decided that I could no longer live in Russia,” he said.
“I was morally ready for it. I haven’t shared Russia’s policy since 2014… I had been looking for the inner strength to leave Russia.”
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He also had to leave his wife – who he said filed for a divorce – and his children.
Mr Volobuyev said he was able to leave the country on his Russian passport, which contained a Schengen visa.
He flew first to Turkey, then on to Latvia and finally Poland, from where he approached the Ukrainian border.
Unsurprisingly, the presence of a man with a Russian passport was met with suspicion by border guards and security officials.
However, he eventually convinced them to let him enter Ukraine – though he still had to undergo more checks before being granted permission to stay.
By June 2022, Mr Volobuyev was allowed to join the fight against Russia’s invasion, initially as an unpaid volunteer before he was accepted into Ukraine’s international legion of foreign fighters in January 2023.
Video shared by the Russian Gazprom official turned Ukrainian fighter shows him helping to fire an artillery piece.
He also operated mortars.
“I took part in the fighting in Luhansk region, in Donetsk region. I was wounded near Bakhmut,” he said.
Ukrainian servicemen inside a trench near the town of Bakhmut in March. Pic: Reuters
It happened as he was helping evacuate a Czech fighter who had suffered a leg wound.
Mr Volobuyev said he had been carrying a stretcher with a young Belarusian soldier, just 20 years old, who was also fighting as part of the international legion.
“He put his hand on my back and said in Russian: ‘Igor, stand in front of me’ – and pushed me forward.
“And so it was that he stood in the place where I had been. We picked up the stretcher, took two steps and a powerful explosion erupted,” Mr Volobuyev recalled.
Mr Volobuyev in action
“This young soldier was killed by a bomb. Two more people were killed who were next to me. Everyone got injured, including the one we pulled out. I also got hit in the shoulder, but I survived.”
The horror of war has not deterred him from continuing to fight. He is also celebrating finally receiving Ukrainian citizenship.
A video shared with Sky News shows Mr Volobuyev in July holding up his Russian passport and his new Ukrainian identity card – and seemingly urging other Russians to defect.
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“This is a passport of slavery and a symbol of fascism,” he can be heard saying in the video, referring to his Russian papers.
“And this is the passport of free people. This passport is respected by the entire civilised world. I became a citizen of Ukraine. I chose dignity. If I could do it, so can you.”
The former Gazprom executive had a message for Mr Putin.
“The time will come, I really hope, when Russia will officially recognise him as a criminal. And the Russians will repent for being with him, choosing him, listening to him, and for the time they spent in this war under his leadership. I hope they will be ashamed.”
The Russian authorities have issued a warrant for Mr Volobuyev’s arrest following his defection.
But he says he does not plan to return.
“When I was leaving [Russia], I knew I was going back home. Ukraine is my home.”