MOSCOW, July 8 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a case after a Russian national, mistakenly believed to be a serviceman, was abducted in Ukraine, the committee’s official spokesman, Vladimir Markin, told journalists on Tuesday.

“According to investigators, on June 19 Artyom Mikhailenko was travelling from the Rostov Region [in Russia] to the Lugansk Region [in southeast Ukraine]. During a personal search at a checkpoint (…) he was detained by men in military uniforms with the stripes of the Dnepr special forces police battalion,” Markin said.

When they saw an image of Mikhailenko holding a weapon on his phone, they took his money and phone and placed him in “a secure room,” the spokesman said.

According to the Investigative Committee, six men in military uniforms later beat Mikhailenko and took him to a hangar where they tortured him for a week.

When they concluded that he was not a Russian serviceman after all, they took him to a forest where they tied him to a tree and left. Mikhailenko managed to free himself and hitchhiked back to the Rostov Region.