Cannibal released from Russian prison to fight in Ukraine

A convicted mass murderer from Russia’s far eastern Sakhalin region who ate one of his at least four victims has been released from prison to fight for the Russian military in Ukraine, Telegram channel Sakhalin Against the War reported on Thursday.

Denis Gorin, who is now in a hospital in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk with non-life-threatening injuries, according to independent news outlet Sibir.Realii, posted a photo of himself in military uniform with Z-insignia a month ago.

Gorin was sentenced to 10 years in a maximum-security prison in 2003 for murder and mutilation, but was granted early parole for exemplary behaviour just seven years into his sentence.

In 2010, he killed again, stripping flesh from his victim’s corpse and eating it. The following year, Gorin assaulted a man with the help of his brother, cut his throat and then buried the body. In January 2012, the Gorin brothers stabbed another person to death, after which Denis Gorin was arrested, tried, and sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Russian authorities have regularly released rapists, murderers, and those serving sentences for even more serious crimes, in exchange for them signing up to go to the front. In many cases, ex-convicts are subsequently pardoned and are then free to return home.