Daring great escape of a Russian deserter

A Russian mercenary commander fled from his homeland into Norway by creeping past border watchtowers, dodging rifle fire and scrambling away from tracker dogs. Andrei Medvedev claimed that at about 2am on Friday he climbed two barbed wire fences guarding the 123-mile Russia-norway border in the Arctic, then ran across a frozen river. The Wagner recruit said: “I heard dogs barking, the spotlights came on and shots were fired at me. I just ran towards the forest.”

AT LEAST three Russian soldiers died and 16 were wounded when a hand grenade was accidentally detonated and blew up an ammunition store, Russian news agencies reported yesterday.

The blast in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders north-east Ukraine, occurred in a cultural centre used to store munitions for Russia’s armed forces.

Eight service personnel were missing yesterday evening, the Interfax news agency reported. “As a result of the unintentional detonation of a hand grenade by a sergeant in a dormitory ... a fire broke out. Sixteen servicemen, including the culprit, have been taken to hospital. Three died,” local emergency services said.

Officials blamed “careless handling” of the grenade for the explosion, the Tass news agency reported. The 112 and Baza Telegram channels, linked to Russia’s law enforcement agencies, said the dead and injured were conscripts called up to fight in Ukraine after a mobilisation drive.

The Belgorod region has been hit by multiple Russian missiles. In October a gunman opened fire at one of the several military bases in the Belgorod region, killing 11 soldiers.

Fuel and ammunition stores there have also been rocked by explosions in what Moscow said were Ukrainian attacks. Kyiv, without admitting responsibility, has called them “karma” for Russia’s invasion.