Kathrine Frich
That decision backfired on the Russian leader.
When army ranks run thin, desperate leaders start looking for recruits in the darkest places.
Handing rifles to hardened criminals might fill empty boots quickly, yet it brings prison rules straight into the trenches.
In eastern Ukraine, that gamble recently ended in a bloodbath among supposed allies.
Friendly fire turns fatal
A court in occupied Donetsk is currently hearing murder and extortion charges against Russian soldier Alexei Korolev. According to independent Russian outlet The Insider, Korolev traded an 11-year prison sentence for wholesale mephedrone trafficking to fight in Ukraine, after accumulating six earlier convictions for crimes including robbery and assault.
Now, he stands accused of gunning down six fellow Russian soldiers on October 25, 2025. Ukrainian state project “I Want to Live” first reported the massacre in February 2026, and The Insider later verified all six deaths using casualty lists kept by Mediazona and the BBC.
The feud started near Liman First in the Kharkiv region when a drone from the 27th Independent Mechanized Brigade accidentally struck a quad bike used by the 121st Mechanized Regiment. Drunken troops from the 121st stormed the drone team’s post that evening, beating the scouts and seizing their gear, “I Want to Live” reported.
When Commander Yuri Davydov led his men to retrieve the stolen equipment the next morning, another fight broke out. After 28-year-old Sergeant Vadim Petukhov mocked Korolev’s prison record and threatened him with rape, Korolev opened fire, killing six soldiers and wounding Davydov and driver Alexander Velikanov.
Secret spy among victims
Although five months passed before prosecutors filed charges on March 24, 2026, a fresh hearing was set for October 13. Defence lawyer Ekaterina Kulik confirmed the secret proceedings to The Insider: “It’s a case involving a soldier. All hearings are held behind closed doors.”
Among the dead was 22-year-old Corporal Rodion Kravets, alongside Petukhov, Dmitry Galatov, Sergei Nizovtsev, Pavel Sirov, and Vyacheslav Kuznetsov. Bank records reviewed by The Insider revealed that Kravets worked as a “specialist” in military unit 71330, the secretive 16th Center of Russia’s FSB security service.
According to British government and European Union reports cited by The Insider, that elite unit runs foreign cyberattacks and intercepts electronic messages. Kravets somehow ended up in the 27th Brigade after facing a petty theft charge, only to be shot dead by a fellow recruit.
