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Russian Man Who Dismembered Woman and Killed Her 6-Year-Old Son Freed to Fight in Ukraine
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![Photo of Ivan Khomenko]( "Photo of Ivan Khomenko")
A resident of Russia’s Sverdlovsk region accused of murdering a woman and her six-year-old son has been released from custody after signing a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense to fight in Ukraine, according to The Moscow Times on October 29.
The Sverdlovsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that 49-year-old Alexander Gook from the city of Serov had been under investigation for the killing of 42-year-old Olga Soroka and her child.
Local media, citing sources familiar with the case, reported that Gook’s detention period expired and was not extended because he enlisted to serve in the Russian army.
A relative of the victims said the news came as a shock, stating that Gook “should have been sentenced first” and that “he didn’t answer for his crime.” The man added: “Even if he’s killed there — let them bury him in another city. Here, people will break his monument.”
The crime allegedly occurred in November 2024. According to investigators, Soroka traveled from Nizhny Tagil to visit Gook, a former colleague who previously worked as a lawyer.
During an evening gathering, Gook reportedly killed the woman’s six-year-old son, then stabbed her to death. He later dismembered the woman’s body and disposed of both victims’ remains at a local landfill.
In the spring of 2025, residents discovered part of Soroka’s remains at a compost site, leading investigators to identify and arrest Gook.
He confessed to the killings, though the victims’ bodies have not been fully recovered. Gook had no prior combat experience and previously held a management position at a local dairy plant and worked as an inspector at the city’s employment center.
Earlier, Russia redeployed former POWs back to the front, with soldiers like Vitalii Soldatenko and Ivan Grebennikov reporting they were sent without medical treatment—violating Article 117 of the 1949 Geneva Convention, which bans forcing repatriated POWs to fight again.
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-1ccf9187ff85918e4e0ecd6ae66b1aab.jpg "The 13th-14th century Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Fortress, also known as the Akkerman Fortress, situated on the right bank of the Dnister River Estuary, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Odesa Region, southern Ukraine. (Source: Wikimedia)")
