A Wagner Group emblem on display at an informal shrine to Wagner Group cofounder Yevgeny Prigozhin in Moscow, 26 August 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE / YURI KOCHETKOV
A Wagner Group mercenary who raped and killed a pensioner in Russia’s Kirov region after returning from the war in Ukraine has signed a contract with the Defence Ministry and gone back to war, human rights organisation Travmpunkt reported Monday, quoting relatives of the victim.
The soldier, who was named by Telegram news channel Baza as Ivan Rossomakhin, returned from Ukraine to his native Kirov region, in central western Russia, in March 2023. According to investigators, one day when intoxicated, Rossomakhin went to the home of Yulia Buyskikh, an 85-year-old pensioner he knew, and proceeded to stab her and rape her. She later died from her injuries.
Ivan Rossomakhin. Photo: Dozhd / Telegram
Rossomakhin was sentenced to 22 years in a high-security prison in April, which was subsequently increased to 23 years on appeal. He was also ordered to pay 2 million rubles (€19,500) in damages to the victim’s family, though following a 2022 legal amendment, anybody serving with the Russian military in Ukraine is temporarily exempt from paying off debts.
According to the director of the prison where Rossomakhin was briefly incarcerated, Rossomakhin signed a contract with the Defence Ministry and returned to Ukraine within six months of beginning his prison sentence, something the director said was in full accordance with the law.
This is not the first time that Rossomakhin has made use of early release programmes for those who sign up to fight in Ukraine, according to Travmpunk. In September 2022, he was released from a 14-year sentence in a maximum security penal colony for murder and violent robbery to go and fight with the Wagner Group just two years into his sentence.
