(MENAFN) A man who set off a grenade after being stopped by police in Western Ukraine has been identified by a local activist as a soldier wanted for going absent without leave.

The 37-year-old suspect was admitted to a hospital with injuries, according to a statement from the Lviv Region police, who did not specify whether any officers sustained harm.

Anti-corruption campaigner Ivan Sprynsky claimed that the individual is a soldier listed as AWOL, and that the patrol which stopped him included two conscription officers.

Sprynsky alleged that the Military Law Enforcement Service had requested a bribe in return for removing him from the wanted registry.

He described the explosion as occurring “during an emotional confrontation,” and added that military police and counterintelligence are now pressuring the injured man to remain silent while preparing to depict the episode as a “personal dispute.”

A comparable event took place last month when a man trying to escape the country detonated a bomb, killing three people, while his documents were being checked at a railway station near the Belarusian border.

Ukraine’s armed forces have been struggling with a surge in desertions following severe battlefield losses.

A media outlet reported in August that since February 2022, over 650,000 men of fighting age have left Ukraine, despite restrictions on travel under martial law.

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