Court records show Rossomakhin committed this first murder in Kirov in October 2019, when he was drunk and killed a woman with whom he quarreled. AdvertisementDuring his first prison sentence, Rossomakhin was recruited by the Wagner mercenary group, which was accepting convicts into its ranks, in September 2022, per Travmpunkt. The legal rights group said that after spending time on the front, Rossomakhin returned home to Kirov. AdvertisementThe group added that Rossomakhin had served less than six months of his 23-year sentence before being shipped off again to Ukraine. AdvertisementRussia initially recruited thousands of prisoners to fight in Ukraine through the Wagner Group, but the practice soon slowed because convicts feared they would be treated poorly on the frontline.

---

Persons: —, Ivan Rossomakhin, Rossomakhin, Wagner, Travmpunkt, Anna Pekareva, Yulia Byuskikh, Pekareva Organizations: Service, Business, Russian Defense Ministry, BBC, Press, Kremlin, Russian Ministry of Defense, Wagner Locations: Ukraine, Kirov, Russia, Moscow