A notorious serial killer, Denis Aleksandrovich Zubov, who was sentenced to 21 years in jail for murdering three people, including his ex-girlfriend, her lover, and a 73-year-old woman, has been pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zubov was then recruited to join Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine. His death in April 2023, at the age of 42, was discovered after independent journalists uncovered his grave and tracked down his death certificate.
Zubov’s killing spree began in 2013, motivated by jealousy and rage when he discovered his ex-girlfriend was in a new relationship. He brutally murdered both his ex-girlfriend’s lover and the elderly woman, carrying out the second killing to throw off police. Zubov later reconciled with his ex-girlfriend, only to lure her into a forest and murder her, then go into hiding for two years.
During Zubov’s release, Russia was recruiting reservists to fight in Ukraine, with the condition that convicts would have their criminal records wiped away in exchange for six months of fighting. Many of these released prisoners are believed to have died in the fighting, with rumors spreading about the high mortality rate of Russian infantrymen.
In another instance, one of five men convicted of murdering journalist Anna Politkovskaya was pardoned after serving six months in Ukraine. The pattern of releasing prisoners to bolster the Russian forces in Ukraine has raised concerns about the ethics and morality of such recruitment tactics.
In conclusion, the story of Denis Zubov’s release from prison and subsequent recruitment to join forces in Ukraine sheds light on the questionable practices employed by the Russian government to strengthen its military presence in the region. The recruitment of pardoned and released prisoners for military purposes raises ethical and moral concerns about the use of convicted criminals in armed conflicts outside their own country.