A Wagner PMC fighter, returning from the war, stabbed his friend’s mother and wounded his neighbor with a knife

Editorial “Layout” June 10, 2024 |

Previously, the “hero of the Northern Military District” was already convicted of murdering a girl

A court in Orenburg sentenced ex-Wagner PMC fighter Kirill Smirnov to almost 18 years in prison for murder, attempted murder of two people and theft, Vorstka discovered. Initially, the “Wagnerite” received exactly 18 years, but after an appeal the sentence was commuted by two months.

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A fighter from the Wagner PMC returned to Orenburg from Ukraine in April 2023

38-year-old Smirnov returned to Orenburg from Ukraine in April 2023, it follows from the court ruling, his wife and small child were waiting for him at home. After returning, Smirnov visited his childhood friend Igor Kopytko, who invited him to a barbecue at his parents’ house. During this meeting, Smirnov “showed signs of attention” to Kopytko’s ex-girlfriend.

Later, Smirnov, together with a colleague (also a former prisoner), came to Kopytko and found out that he had gotten back together with his girlfriend. The “Wagnerite” was upset about this and told the girl that he would “take her for himself.”

On the morning of May 8, 2023, Smirnov called a neighbor who was repairing plumbing and asked him to come to his house, allegedly because of a leak. When the neighbor came to the apartment, Smirnov, “in a state of intoxication during an argument,” began to choke him, beat him, tried to stab him with a fork, and then stabbed him in the neck and left.

A colleague who remained in the apartment was able to provide first aid to the man, after which he walked to the house, from where he was hospitalized.

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Smirnov himself first went to the house of the injured neighbor and stole a phone there, and then went to the house of Kopytko’s parents, where he was going to do repairs at that time. Only Kopytko’s mother was in the house - Smirnov severely beat her, stabbed her many times, and then cut her throat. The woman died from massive blood loss, a forensic examination found. Later, Smirnov, hiding from the police, jumped from the fourth floor of his apartment, receiving broken legs and lower back.

When imposing the punishment, the court did not consider the “Wagnerite’s” alcohol intoxication as an aggravating circumstance. At the same time, he assessed as mitigating participation in the “SVO”, the presence of the medal “For Courage” and took into account that Smirnov “has not been previously convicted.”

A fighter from the Wagner PMC served time for murder, but he was pardoned and sent to war

But according to the testimony of victims and witnesses in this case, in 2022 he went to war from a colony, where he was serving a sentence for murder. “He said that sins need to be atoneed,” he explained to his aunt his motivation for going to war, the resolution says.

For this, the man received a pardon and release from the colony. On the website of the Orenburg court, “Verstka” found a sentence handed down to Smirnov for murder and destruction of someone else’s property in 2015. He then celebrated “9 days” after his father’s death and wanted to “relax” and “take the girl off,” the court ruling said.

Smirnov met a 29-year-old girl andcame to her home, but during a drunken quarrel she “insulted his honor, dignity, pride and sexual orientation” - then he beat her, strangled her with a sheet and drowned her in the bathtub. To hide the evidence, Smirnov set fire to the apartment and fled.

For this, as a repeat offender, he was sentenced to 12 years in a maximum security colony - this term would only expire in the summer of 2027. Previously, Smirnov was also convicted at least four times for abuse of power, fraud, robbery and theft.

We would like to remind you that, as “Verstka” previously calculated, in 2023, more than 190 criminal cases were opened against the Wagner PMC soldiers who were pardoned by the president and returned from the war in Ukraine. For example, we told stories about how a Wagner PMC fighter killed a resident of the Moscow region because she fell in love with another man, and another soldier pardoned by Putin returned from the front, beat his friend and left her to die in the cold.

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