"Shed His Body As A Shield": A Belarusian Volunteer Saved The Life Of The Former Vice President Of Gazprombank

• 14.10.2026, 12:01

Igor Volobuev spoke about this in an exclusive interview with the website Charter97.org.

On the sidelines of the Free Russia Forum, which took place on October 11 in Warsaw, a reporter for the Charter97.org website managed to speak with the former vice president of Gazprombank Igor Volobuev.

After the outbreak of full-scale war, he left for Ukraine to resist Russian aggression. Currently, Igor Volobuev serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and is also a public representative of the underground movement “Black Spark,” which operates in Russia. This organization helps Kyiv gather important information, work with sources inside Russia, and support the resistance against Putin’s regime.

“‘Black Spark’ has made great progress in five months of public activity; there are really a lot of people,” Igor Volobuev told the website Charter97.org. — Hundreds of people are directly involved in combat operations: blowing things up, setting fires. This is probably the riskiest activity. But to carry it out, thousands of people assist them in completing their tasks.

There has been significant progress, for example, in attracting top-notch IT specialists. They aren’t necessarily Russian. They’re capable of remotely disabling cameras along the approach and retreat routes.

Next are cyberattacks. Take, for example, the attack on the factory in Alabuga. This became possible precisely after such specialists made contact, offered their services, passed test assignments, and were able to demonstrate their capabilities.
“There are a huge number of people reaching out and passing on sensitive and classified information”.

Igor Volobuev says that many Russian entrepreneurs, whose businesses were “seized” by Putin’s regime, have turned to the underground:

“These aren’t some big shots with vast fortunes, but they are fairly well-off people. They were forced to leave, to abandon everything. And they see ‘Iskra’ as an opportunity for revenge. They still know the security and video surveillance systems at their facilities; they know where the servers are. In other words, they can essentially map out, step by step, what’s inside and where it is, as well as the access points, escape routes, and the weakest spots.”

Igor Volobuev calls the Russians a “cunning enemy” and urges the West to prepare for new hybrid attacks from the Kremlin:
“Russia will try to test the Europeans’ reaction. Recently, there was an initiative by the Finnish prime minister: to suspend the issuance of tourist visas to Russian citizens.

He’s essentially saying: if Europe is concerned about hybrid attacks, then how are these people getting there? Are we going to give them that opportunity ourselves? He said he would raise this issue at the next meeting of the Council of the European Union.

This is truly a very important situation, because we need to be prepared. If Europe thinks that the Russians are bogged down in Ukraine and, because they’re deploying such resources there, won’t have enough strength left to make life miserable for Europeans, that’s a very big mistake”.

In a conversation with a reporter from the Charter97.org website, Igor Volobuev shared a personal story. In 2023, a Belarusian volunteer saved the former vice president of Gazprombank at the cost of his own life:
“I can’t even reveal his call sign because his parents are in Belarus,— says Igor Volobuev. — He was a young man, just 20 years old, who had been fighting against Lukashenko’s regime as far back as 2020. He was forced to leave because it became clear that the persecution would land him in prison. He went to Poland, and from there came to fight in Ukraine; he had already served for a year by the time of his death. He was a gunner on an American MK-19 grenade launcher; he was a very nice guy.

He was the only Belarusian in our battalion. I was the only Russian. They didn’t accept Russians or Belarusians into our unit. The battalion commander took me in because we’re from the same region (Igor Volobuev was born in Akhtyrka, Ukraine — Note by Charter97.org). He said, “I’ll take care of this.” And he’d taken the Belarusian in earlier because there was an American guy there who had essentially vouched for him—they’d fought together in the same crew”.

Igor Volobuev recounted that on that fateful day, they were carrying out a combat mission near Bakhmut:

“I was on the rocket launcher crew. We were already ready to fire; we were providing fire support. And this guy was sitting in a trench with his guys, in the second or third line. They’d had a dead American for a day already because of the intense shelling.

Our commander ordered us to move out. There were two of us in the crew, and we were the closest. We had to go out to meet them because they had a wounded squad leader, a Czech. They were trying to pull him out but couldn’t—it was that difficult. We went to meet them, climbing straight down into the trenches. There were many bodies there, and the mud was terrible. And we pulled that Czech soldier out onto the road.

I was in the very last position. I was supposed to take this folding stretcher and continue the evacuation. But then a Belarusian suddenly stood up behind me and said, “Igor, move up front.” He grabbed me by my body armor and moved me, not even giving me a choice. He pushed me aside and took my place.

We lifted the wounded man and took two steps. Then the Russians above us detonated some ammunition. They thought it would hit us and kill us all with shrapnel. Everyone was thrown aside. The explosion was so powerful that it felt like an electric shock running through my whole body. I was thrown back. I saw that the Belarusian was lying there. It turned out later that when we were laying him to rest and he was in the coffin, his front was completely intact, but there was nothing left of his back.

The Belarusian had essentially shielded me with his own body. A piece of shrapnel hit me. Three people were killed. That was the price we paid.
But we managed to pull that Czech guy out. He survived; they amputated his leg. Some kind of miracle happened. For me, it was a miracle. But he died”, — said Igor Volobuev.