Stanislav Prudnikov, 36, a former convict who was killed in the Ukraine War, has been recently buried at the Alley of Heroes of the Bataysk cemetery in Russia, 161.RU, local media outlet, reports.
A court in Bataysk sentenced Prudnikov to 8 years and 5 months in a maximum-security prison in 2015. He would have been released in the spring of 2024.
Prudnikov was killed in Ukraine on 31 October 2022. His relatives told Batayskoye Vremya earlier that the man had signed a contract with a private military company while in prison.
“In August 2022, he called and said that he was going to Ukraine with a private military company. He said he had signed a six month contract. He never got in touch with us since then,” his ex-wife Viktoria said.
Batayskoye Vremya also says that Prudnikov was actually sentenced to 12 years in prison and was due to be released in 2026. He has a son, 10.
161.RU contacted a convict who served time in the same prison as Prudnikov. He confirmed that the private military company in question was PMC Wagner.
“We lived in the same detachment [with him] for some time. They departed at night. They all [were] spellbound: half a year and we’re home, six months and we’re home, everyone thought so. There were those who realised they could get killed, but were okay with this as Wagner promised payouts to their relatives. This was his choice, his fate. I feel sorry for all of them, I feel even more sorry for their relatives,” the convict said.
The media outlet asked the local civilian and penitentiary authorities to comment on the matter, but received no response so far.
A man named Valery, sentenced for dealing heroin literally in prison, was recruited by PMC Wagner earlier, killed in Ukraine, and buried at a combatants cemetery in the Kaliningrad region sometime ago.
