According to the local portal 74.ru, in 2015 Kirill Plankov was sentenced to 17.5 years in a colony. 17-year-old Lena Patrusheva disappeared in November 2014. Law enforcement officers and volunteers searched for the girl for several days, and 19-year-old Plankov, in addition to participating in the search, wrote touching messages to the missing girl on social networks.
Later, the missing girl's blood was found on Plankov's sneakers, and the young man admitted his guilt. He told investigators that he was jealous of the girl and decided to take revenge on her. Together with his stepbrother Maxim Valishin, he took her to the forest, where he beat her until her heart stopped. In the same forest, the brothers hid the body.
After serving half of his sentence, Plankov signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense, spent six months in Zaporozhye, and returned home.
As noted by "Sibir.Realii"*, this is not the first case where those convicted of brutal murders are released from the colony in exchange for participation in the war, and six months later find themselves free.
In November 2023, Putin pardoned Vladislav Kanyus from Kemerovo, who brutally killed his girlfriend. Kanyus has already returned from the front and is free. Also free is Dmitry Zelensky from Perm, who strangled his girlfriend and put her body through a meat grinder. He spent only three years in prison, after which he went to war, from where he returned six months later.
In September, "Verstka"** reported that over 2.5 years of war, more than 500 people were killed by those returning from the war. Approximately the same number of people received severe injuries.
* Recognized in Russia as "foreign agents" and "undesirable" organization.
** Recognized in Russia as a "foreign agent".