The Wagner man who returned from Ukraine is wanted for rape

Alexey Kostromin, a fighter of PMC “Wagner” who returned from Ukraine, is wanted in the Kirov region on suspicion of raping and beating a 26-year-old girl. The mercenary was previously convicted of murder.

According to the Telegram channel “Baza”, in December 2020, in the village of Sozimsky, Kirov Region, Kostromin, who then worked in the regional office of the FSIN, beat his girlfriend to death with a hammer out of jealousy. The court sentenced him to a long term of imprisonment, but Kostromin did not serve two years and was recruited by PMC “Wagner” and went to war. After the service, he apparently received a pardon and returned to his native village, where, according to the investigation, he committed a new crime.

It is noted that the victim of Wagner’s actions is now in intensive care in a serious condition. She was diagnosed with an open craniocerebral injury, brain contusion, facial fracture, stab wounds to the neck and contusion of the eyeballs.

• In the summer of last year, after several military defeats by the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine, the private military company “Wagner” and its founder, a businessman close to Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, began to recruit prisoners into their ranks and send them to war. Convicts who agreed to take part in hostilities had to spend six months on the front line, they were forbidden to retreat and surrender under the threat of execution. Those who remained alive were promised freedom. Thus, according to various estimates, 50 to 70 thousand fighters were recruited into the PMC. According to Prigozhin, 32,000 of them have already returned and received pardons for their participation in hostilities.
• Recently, mass media have regularly reported on serious crimes, including murders and rapes, committed by fighters of the PMC “Wagner” who returned from Ukraine. So, at the end of May, a man from Wagner, suspected of raping two schoolgirls aged 10 and 12, was sent under arrest in the Novosibirsk region. And at the beginning of August in Karelia Igor Sofonov, who had returned from the war and had previously been convicted, was arrested on charges of murdering six people.