A group of six employees of Ukraine's State Border Service surrendered to Russia on Christmas Eve on the border with the Belgorod Region in the Kharkov direction, a source in the Russian security agencies told Sputnik on Monday.
"In the group chat we were informed about drugs, about alcohol, that at the neighboring platoon post a serviceman drank either alcohol or vodka and got poisoned. He went to bed and did not get up again," a serviceman from the 1st Border Guard Unit of the State Border Guard Service, Sgt. Ruslan Zadorozhny (call sign 'Bizon,' born in 2001), said.
Border service inspector of the 2nd category, Sgt. Alexander Bychko (call sign "Medved," born in 2001), also reported similar incidents, despite instructional briefings, which he said come in regularly.