Russian crime boss killed in Ukraine after being recruited from prison to fight, report says

Russian gang leader Igor Kusk was serving a 23-year jail term when he requested to fight in Ukraine

He was sent to the front line by the Wagner Group, which has been recruiting prisoners to fight

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Thick smoke, visible for miles around, rises over Bakhmut in the Donbas region of Ukraine on September 15. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:37pm, 26 Sep 2022Updated: 12:38pm, 26 Sep 2022

A Russian crime boss who was serving a 23-year jail term before leaving prison to fight in Ukraine was killed in action, according to the Russian outlet Business Gazeta.

Igor Kusk was the leader of a gang in Tatarstan and was found guilty of various crimes, including murders in 2015, and was imprisoned in a strict regime prison colony, according to reports.

Kusk sent a letter from prison to the leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, asking to join the fight in Ukraine, his widow Irina told the outlet.

A representative from the paramilitary Wagner Group came to get him, and she said he was sent to the front line on July 25.

He died on September 6 fighting in the Bakhmut region in the Donbas from a shrapnel injury to the head, said the report.

Irina said her husband was 55 and not in perfect health but was not afraid of anyone. Kusk had previously served in the Soviet-Afghan War, it was reported.

Numerous photos of the Kusk’s funeral in a village near Kazan, 800km (500 miles) east of Moscow, appear to show it was attended by hundreds of mourners, including local officials.