VOLGOGRAD, Russia – A convicted Russian serial killer, Denis Zubov, who was pardoned in exchange for serving on the front lines, has reportedly been killed fighting in Ukraine.
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.
Zubov, of Volgograd, was sentenced to 21 years in a maximum-security penal colony in 2017 for the murder and mutilation of three people. His killing spree allegedly started after a difficult breakup with a woman he had been dating.
According to the reports, Zubov may have been killed near Bakhmut and his sister, Tatyana, confirmed that Zubov had been pardoned in order to serve in the conflict in Ukraine and then was killed.
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. 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.
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.
Zubov’s grave marker indicates he died in late April. The war in Ukraine has been raging for nearly two years. Russia has recruited prisoners to serve in the Ukraine war.
The details of Zubov’s death add to the complex and controversial nature of the conflict in Ukraine, which has drawn in a variety of combatants from different backgrounds, including former prisoners and convicted individuals.