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A Russian serial killer who was pardoned in exchange for serving on the front lines has reportedly been killed fighting in Ukraine.
Denis Zubov, 41, was killed on April 20, 2023, according to the date on his grave marker – but his death was just uncovered by a group that tracks Russian soldiers killed in the Ukraine war, Mediazone said.
Based on the date on his grave, Zubov may have been killed near Bakhmut, the outlet added.
Zubov’s sister, Tatyana, confirmed that Zubov had been pardoned in order to serve in the conflict in Ukraine and then was killed.
“They told me that he left [prison] on his own. We don’t know the circumstances at all. As the military curator told me, he signed the contract on his own. They were visited in these cells, as they are called,” she told the outlet.
Zubov, of Volgograd, was sentenced to 21 years in a maximum-security penal colony in 2017 for the murder and mutilation of three people, the Moscow Times reported.
His killing spree allegedly started after a difficult breakup with a woman he had been dating, Mediazone said, citing local reports.
On Sept. 1, 2013, he viciously murdered a man believed to be his romantic rival and cut off 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 wristwatch from the victim’s home before setting the house on fire and fleeing the scene.
A few months later, Zubov briefly reunited with his ex-girlfriend.
Zubov stole 1,800 rubles and a wristwatch from the victim’s home before setting the house on fire and fleeing the scene.
After the relationship fell apart again, in the summer of 2014, he lured the woman into the forest and strangled her to death before burying her body nearby.
Zubov avoided capture for nearly two years before he was finally arrested in 2016 and confessed to all three killings, Mediazone explained.
He was subsequently linked to the crimes via DNA evidence, the outlet added.
News of Zubov’s death comes about two months after a former Moscow police officer convicted for the murder of a high-profile journalist was pardoned for his own services in Ukraine.
Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was pardoned after serving out one contract on the front lines, and also signed a second contract, his lawyer announced in November.
He was previously sentenced to two decades behind bars for the 2006 shooting death of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya.
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