Russia puts grandson of Brezhnev, captured by Ukrainian forces, on wanted list

Russian law enforcement agencies have placed Anton Milayev, who was previously captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on their wanted list. The relevant data has appeared in the open database of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

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According to Russian sources, Milayev is being sought in connection with a criminal case. However, the specific article of the Criminal Code under which the proceedings were initiated is not disclosed in the public domain.

The serviceman was captured by Ukrainian defenders in the Kherson direction in 2026.

Connection to the Brezhnev family

Anton Milayev was born in 1980 in Moscow. His mother, Irina Kuznetsova, was married to the son of Evgeny Milayev. Evgeny Milayev himself was the husband of Galina Brezhnev, the daughter of the former General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Leonid Brezhnev.

Due to this family connection, Milayev is publicly referred to as the "great-grandson" of the Soviet leader, although he is not a biological relative. According to reports, Galina Brezhnev raised him as her own grandson.

In the project "I Want to Live," Milayev stated that he had tried to distance himself from the famous surname and sought to live as an ordinary person.

Path to the front

In autumn 2024, Milayev suffered financial losses on the cryptocurrency platform Ubit. He had invested in tokens related to mining, which promised passive income. The platform lacked the necessary licences, and users complained about blocked bank cards and problems with withdrawing funds.

As a result, Milayev accumulated a debt of 1 million rubles. To settle it, he signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence in Kostroma Oblast and went to fight against Ukraine.

He had no prior military experience. His training lasted about three weeks, after which he was sent to the front lines as a sapper.

In captivity and personal life

According to the soldier's mother, her son stopped answering calls in November 2025. It was only in the summer of 2026 that the family learned he was in Ukrainian captivity on the right bank of Kherson Oblast.

After his capture, Milayev gave an interview to the Ukrainian project "I Want to Live." He stated that he had gone to fight solely for money and was not interested in the situation in Ukraine.

From the 1990s, Milayev lived in the United States for approximately 19 years. According to him, he worked in low-paid jobs there, had no stable income or permanent housing. In the mid-2010s, he returned to Russia, explaining this by fatigue from life in the US.

Before signing a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence, Milayev lived in Moscow and worked as a truck driver. In the interview, he spoke nostalgically about the Soviet Union, stating that back then "there was a country," whereas now it is "chaos."