Battalion Commander of the “Archangel Michael” Mikhail Maiman: I was kidnapped to give to Kadyrov

These events took place on May 31 near the OKO gas station on the Znamenka-Lugansk highway in the Dnipropetrovsk region, when two cars with servicemen of the “Archangel Michael” battalion were at the gas station. Witnesses tell how, at high speed, several minibuses drove into a gas station filled with cars, from which 15 people armed with machine guns in military uniform without identification marks jumped out. With the words “The SBU is working!” and demanding to get out of the car, they cordoned off the cars with the battalion servicemen.

After the fighters left Mikhail Maiman and another of the fighters, the Englishman Peter was blindfolded and put in a car and taken away in an unknown direction. Immediately after the incident, the hotline of the Dnepropetrovsk police received a message about the kidnapping and a search began. After all, the kidnappers had nothing to do with any Ukrainian special service.

“They took me to the front line, and they said that they would give me back to the Kadyrovtsy. On the way, they periodically stopped, they took me out and beat me, extinguished cigarette butts on me, demanded to apologize to Kadyrov in front of the camera. They forced me to sign several blank sheets of paper. Several times they were taken out to be shot. The abductors were in different military uniforms, the unit had identification marks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, they spoke Russian,” Mikhail Maiman said.

As a result of well-coordinated actions of the police, the Security Service of Ukraine and the military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, at a checkpoint in the Lugansk region, a few kilometers from the front line, Mikhail Maiman was fired.

“I managed to untie my hands and mouth, and when we passed the next checkpoint, I started screaming loudly. From the well-coordinated work of the military at the post, it was clear that they were waiting for our cars. Some of the kidnappers tried to escape, some were immediately arrested. They are all citizens of Ukraine and are related to the warring units. An investigation is underway.

I know for certain that 6 people have now been detained. The perpetrators of my kidnapping are several people who used to fight with us, but were afraid to go to the front line and are sitting in one of the hotels in Kyiv, selling humanitarian aid and participating in raider raids. Most importantly, I officially declare that the orderers of my kidnapping are Kirill Shevchenko, who forged documents and became the head of the Boxing Federation of Ukraine, and his lawyer Andrei Tsygankov. They thought that the story of handing me over to the Kadyrovites would cover their tracks, but it didn’t work out,” Mikhail Maiman said in his Telegram channel.

As Mikhail said after the abduction and torture, despite the doctors’ order to undergo rehabilitation treatment, he immediately went to the front line to the combat unit to which his unit is assigned to conduct combat work.