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- A Russian man has been freed to fight in Ukraine a second time after returning and killing a woman.
- Ivan Rossomakhin, 29, was initially recruited by Wagner while serving a prison sentence for murder.
- He later returned and murdered an 85-year-old woman, before the Russian army recruited him again, a rights group said.
A Russian man convicted of murder and released to fight in Ukraine returned from the front and killed another victim, but has now been freed a second time, according to multiple reports and a legal rights group.
The news comes as independent Russian media outlets circulated a letter announcing the man's release on August 19.
Ivan Rossomakhin, 29, was originally sentenced in September 2020 to 14 years in a maximum security penal colony for murder and violent robbery, said the legal rights group Travmpunkt.
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.
During 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.
A local court found that upon his return, Rossomakhin killed a second time, invading an 85-year-old woman's home in March 2023 with a bladed weapon and murdering and raping her.
Rossomakhin was given a new sentence of 22 years in prison, which Travmpunkt said was extended to 23 years.
But he was released a second time on August 19, after being recruited by the Russian Defense Ministry, per documents reposted on Telegram by independent Russian media.
The BBC reported that the document was signed by the prison governor of a detention facility where Rossomakhin was held.
Travmpunkt, which represents the relatives of the 85-year-old woman who was the man's second murder victim, said on Monday that prison officials informed the family of Rossomakhin's release.
He is still obligated by law to pay 2 million rubles, or about $22,000, to the victim's family, per Travmpunkt.
The group added that Rossomakhin had served less than six months of his 23-year sentence before being shipped off again to Ukraine.
"My first reaction was terror," Anna Pekareva, the granddaughter of the murdered woman, Yulia Byuskikh, told the BBC. "I read the forensic reports and I know what this person did to my grandmother. It's monstrous that he has been released again."
Pekareva told the outlet that she feared Rossomakhin would seek revenge on her family for pushing the courts for his life sentence.
Press teams for the Kremlin and Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
Russia 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.
The Kremlin pardons some prison recruits if they show bravery or fight long enough, with Wagner claiming in March 2023 that only less than 1% of some 5,000 pardoned men had reoffended.
The Russian Defense Ministry took over Wagner's prison recruitment drive in early 2023, with an estimate from the UK's intelligence services saying about 10,000 prisoners signed up in April of that year alone.
Ukraine also recruits prisoners to fight against Russia but does not accept those convicted of rape or multiple murders.
Both Kyiv and Moscow have been hard-pressed to maintain the manpower they need on the front lines, with Ukraine cracking down on men attempting to flee the fighting and the Kremlin continually raising pay bonuses for army volunteers.