A convicted murderer in Russia has signed his second contract to fight in Moscow’s war on Ukraine just months after receiving a new prison sentence for another murder, as reported by the Travmpunkt legal rights group on Monday.
Ivan Rossomakhin, who had been serving a 14-year sentence for murder, was recruited by the Wagner mercenary group in 2022 to fight in Ukraine. After returning to his hometown in the Kirov region, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison for stabbing and raping his elderly neighbor. Despite his new sentence, Rossomakhin reportedly served less than six months before being sent back to the front lines.
The case of Rossomakhin indicates a worrying trend where recruited prisoners evade punishment by being deployed to war zones for the second time. The Russian Defense Ministry took over prison recruitment early last year, and a law signed by President Putin suspends remaining sentences of convicted recruits for the duration of their military service.
In 2023, Russian courts convicted a record number of soldiers for murder, with reports of violence committed by servicemen after returning from Ukraine on the rise.
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The practice of recruiting prisoners for the war in Ukraine was spearheaded by Wagner in 2022. However, Russia’s Defense Ministry took over prison recruitment early last year.