According to a report by the 72.ru portal on May 10th, volunteers in the Thymen region apprehended a traveler in the woods and tied him to a tree. They decided that the individual was a Ukrainian saboteur responsible for setting fires in the forests.
In the Tyumen region, volunteers apprehended a man in the forests near Yekaterinburg. They suspected him of being responsible for the recent forest fires and subsequently tied him to a tree before handing him over to the police.
On social media, the man was wrongly identified as a Ukrainian saboteur. At the police station, he explained that he was a traveler and his next destination was Khabarovsk. The authorities confirmed that he was indeed a hiker and asked residents to adhere to the laws of the Russian Federation and not engage in vigilante actions.
This is not an isolated incident of mistaken identity, as similar cases have occurred in the past where Russians have mistakenly identified fellow citizens as Ukrainian saboteurs. For instance, in March, armed Ukrainians were allegedly searched for in several regions, only to turn out to be two unarmed individuals who had been falsely accused of car theft.