The deputy chairman of Russia's Gazprombank, Igor Volobuyev, says he has left the country for his native Ukraine and joined a territorial defense group to fight against Russian troops in Kyiv.
Volobuyev, who was born and raised in Ukraine’s northern city of Okhtyrka, said in an interview with The Insider and LIGA.net websites that he abruptly left Russia for Ukraine in early March because of Russia's war against his homeland.
"Just in several days I decided that I cannot live in Russia anymore. Russians are killing my father, my friends, my relatives. My father lived in a cold basement for one month. People whom I knew since my childhood told me that that they were ashamed of me.... I grabbed my stuff and left for Ukraine on March 2," Volobuyev said in the interview, which was published on April 26.
Volobuyev, who worked at Gazprombank, one of Russia’s largest banks, for more than 22 years, said blame for the war doesn't stop at Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"It is not Putin who is killing Ukrainians here, not Putin who is stealing toilets, not Putin who is raping women. This is what Russian people are doing. And, although I am an ethnic Ukrainian, I am also responsible for what is happening here. I feel ashamed. I will be ashamed all my life because I am not just a Russian citizen. I was born here. I lived here for 18 years. And therefore my responsibility for all of this is twice, thrice bigger," Volobuyev said.