Sergeant Vasily Ionkin, who fought in Ukraine and was sentenced to 20 years in a penal colony for a fire in a Kostroma club, has again signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense, his lawyer Yuri Khromtsov told Kommersant. After completing all the paperwork, Ionkin will be sent to the front.
In March, Ionkin was sentenced to 20 years in a high-security penal colony for arson in a nightclub, which resulted in the deaths of 13 people. The case against the soldier was investigated under articles of murder, hooliganism with the use of weapons, intentional damage to someone else's property, and causing moderate harm.
The fire in the "Polygon" club in Kostroma occurred on the night of November 5, 2022. According to the investigation, a drunk Ionkin had a conflict with Rosgvardiya officer Maxim Egorov. To intimidate the officer, the soldier took a flare gun and fired it upwards, causing the club's ceiling to catch fire, and the flames quickly spread throughout the building. Once outside, Ionkin fired the flare gun seven more times towards the "Polygon."
The court ordered the convicted person to pay 14.5 million rubles to the victims and relatives of the deceased, and 45 million rubles to the club's owners.
Ionkin's defense insisted that the sergeant could not objectively assess the situation in the club because he had suffered a concussion in the war in Ukraine. "In a complex situation, Ionkin becomes confused and tends to make poorly thought-out decisions, as confirmed by a psychological and psychiatric examination," the defense argued, insisting on reclassifying the charges to less severe ones.