A Russian serial killer who was pardoned in exchange for serving on the front lines has reportedly died in combat in Ukraine.
According to the date on his grave marker, Denis Zubov, 41, was killed on April 20, 2023, but his death had just been discovered by a group tracking Russian soldiers killed in the Ukraine war. . media zone said.
Judging by the date on the grave, Zubov may have been killed near Bakmut, the paper added.
Zubov's sister Tatyana confirmed that Zubov was pardoned to serve in the Ukraine conflict and was later killed.
“They said he was gone. [prison] By myself. I don't understand the situation at all. A military curator told me that he signed his contract himself. They were met in this place called the cell,” she told the news agency.
Zubov, from Volgograd, was sentenced to 21 years in prison in a high-security penal colony in 2017 for the murder and dismemberment of three people. Moscow Times reported.
Citing local reports, Media Zone reported that his killing spree is said to have begun after a painful breakup with a woman he was dating.
On September 1, 2013, he brutally murdered a man he believed to be his romantic rival and severed his genitals.
Two days later, he beat an elderly woman to death with a wrench and cut off her breasts, the report continued.
Zubov stole 1,800 rubles and a watch from the victim's house, set the house on fire and fled the scene.
A few months later, Zubov briefly reunited with his ex-girlfriend.
After their relationship broke down again, in the summer of 2014, the man lured the woman into the woods, strangled her to death, and buried her body nearby.
Mediazone explained that Zubov evaded arrest for nearly two years and confessed to all three killings before he was finally arrested in 2016.
The outlet added that DNA evidence later implicated him in the crime.
News of Zubov's death comes nearly two months after a former Moscow police officer convicted of murdering a prominent journalist was pardoned for his work in Ukraine.
Sergei Kazikurbanov was pardoned after serving one contract on the front line and has also signed a second contract, his lawyer announced in November.
He was previously sentenced to 20 years in prison for the 2006 shooting death of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya.
