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Putin’s War “Hero” Murders Woman in Shelter While Hunting His Wife and Child
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![Photo of Ivan Khomenko]( "Photo of Ivan Khomenko")
A former Russian soldier who served in the war against Ukraine is suspected of killing a woman staying at a shelter for domestic abuse survivors in Irkutsk, eastern Russia.
The incident was reported by The Insider on January 28, citing a statement from Alexander Sobolev, head of the Obereg Foundation.
According to Sobolev, the suspect had previously abused his wife and child and had been pursuing them after they sought refuge in the shelter. The foundation had repeatedly alerted local authorities to the threats.
On the evening of January 27, the man allegedly abducted a different woman affiliated with the shelter. She was taken at knifepoint from a bus stop and held hostage in his apartment. “It could have been any woman he didn’t like,” Sobolev said in a public statement on the foundation’s Telegram channel.
After hours of negotiations with police, the suspect reportedly exited the apartment during the night. Authorities later found that the hostage had been strangled. She is survived by two children.
Sobolev claimed the suspect had a history of violence, including repeated assaults and acts of intimidation. “He escaped from a military unit in Rostov and was convinced he would face no consequences,” Sobolev said.
The Obereg Foundation provides shelter and support to victims of domestic violence in Russia. In recent months, Russian civil society organizations have raised concerns over increasing incidents of gender-based violence involving individuals who have returned from military deployments in Ukraine.
Earlier, Verstka reported that at least 750 civilians have been killed or seriously injured by Russian servicemen returning from the war in Ukraine, with many incidents involving alcohol-fueled domestic violence.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs also recorded a 15-year high in serious crimes in 2025, following the reintegration of over 137,000 ex-combatants, many of them former convicts.
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