'Serbian Volunteer' Returns to BiH: Dario Ristić Brzi, Who Lost a Leg Fighting for Russia in Ukraine, Arrested!

(Patria) - Dario Ristić, known as Brzi, was arrested at the end of last week at Sarajevo Airport upon his return from Russia, Istraga.ba has learned. Ristić was arrested on suspicion of having been on a foreign battlefield, in this case the Ukrainian battlefield as a member of Russian forces. The Court of BiH ordered a one-month detention for Ristić on Friday.

A red Interpol notice had been issued for Dario Ristić from Modriča (born in 1990) on March 13 this year. He returned to BiH from Russia on Thursday via a flight through Istanbul. During the check, officers of the Border Police of BiH established that a warrant had been issued for Ristić. After that, he was handed over to the jurisdiction of the Court of BiH. On Friday, he was remanded in custody and is currently in detention.

Ristić left Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2023. He fought in Ukraine as a member of the unit "Perm Bears". BIRN BiH published a story about Ristić in May last year.

The first post that caught the attention of Detektor journalists, who monitor Russian and pro-Russian channels on Telegram, was one in early March 2024 on the "Perm Bears" channel, in which a masked man in a trench, holding an automatic weapon, greets "Modriča from the Serbian volunteers".

While greeting his settlement "PD", only the man's eyes are visible under his cap. But earlier posts on this channel and Ristić's private profiles, along with conversations with family and security sources, reveal his identity and journey from Sarajevo Airport in November 2023 to the trenches in Ukraine in March 2024.

Photographs and other posts on Telegram and the Vkontakte network, with the help of which Detektor journalists managed to identify him, show that Ristić was in the occupied part of Ukraine at the end of 2023, and in Russia in mid-February 2024.

During the fighting in Ukraine, Ristić lost a leg. It was precisely for this reason that the Russian authorities granted him citizenship of the Russian Federation. However, despite having Russian citizenship, Dario Ristić decided to return to Bosnia and Herzegovina.