Lieutenant General Sergei Milchakov, commander of the 51st Army, set up drug sales among the Russian military and organized the deaths of his subordinates who exposed the drug sales schemes.

Investigators of the Toronto Television media project reported on this based on the seized correspondence of the Russian officer.

“From our sources in the Defense Forces, we received correspondence from the Russian hero, Lieutenant General Sergei Milchakov, commander of the 51st Army. It should be noted that we have verified the contacts in this email checked the photos and videos,” the researchers say.

The 51st Army is a reformatted former 1st Army Corps of the so-called “People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” which was formed by Russian invaders in the Donetsk region in 2014 with the participation of Igor Girkin, an officer of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.

According to the investigation, the Russian lieutenant general developed an extensive drug supply and trafficking scheme in his army, which involved other subordinate military officers, as well as brigade and regimental commanders.

In one of the correspondences, Milchakov instructed his driver Kirill Martynov to transport unknown packages through checkpoints into the combat zone “that should not be heard by dogs.” Milchakov used his own influence to get his cargo through without document checks or inspections.

One of the final recipients of these packages was an officer with the call sign Mamai, Ramil Fakhutdinov, commander of the 5th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade of the 51st Army.

Another Milchakov subordinate involved in drug trafficking was Colonel Igor Puzik, commander of the 87th Rifle Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the 51st Army, with the call sign Zloy. He became known in the Russian media because of a scandal involving the sending of soldiers on a suicide mission who publicly exposed drug trafficking in the unit.

In September 2024, Russian drone operators Ernest and Goodwin recorded a video message accusing their command of drug trafficking and sending them on a one-way trip as part of an assault squad as retaliation from Puzik.

They claimed that their command disbanded their unmanned systems unit because of their opposition to corrupt practices, as well as the flourishing drug trade in their regiment, “which certainly has a percentage of the whole command, at least the older ones.”

Investigators also found intimate correspondence between Serhiy Milchakov and Kateryna Kornienko, the wife of Igor Puzik, which indicates much closer ties between members of the criminal association in the ranks of the 51st Army.

General Milchakov is married and has two minor children. However, judging by the correspondence, this does not prevent him from coercing female subordinates into sexual relations and using his influence to promote them.