Layout: Occupants who returned from war have killed and injured 1000 people in almost four years

For almost four years of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, the occupiers who returned from the combat zone have killed and injured more than 1,000 people in their homeland. This is stated in the investigation of the Russian publication Layout.

In total, according to the Russian media, the occupiers who returned from the war have committed 240 murders in almost four years. In total, at least 551 people have been killed by the returning Russian military.

Another 465 people were seriously injured and maimed. The victims are mostly relatives and acquaintances of the occupiers, and most of the crimes are domestic in nature and occurred while drinking alcohol.

Verstka estimates that 163 people died at the hands of former prisoners. Of the 281 previously convicted soldiers who, after returning from the front, killed or caused death again, at least 142 were in prison for similar crimes.

The journalists told several stories of Russian invaders. For example, they mentioned a resident of Noyabrsk, Tyumen Oblast, who strangled his girlfriend and hid her body in a refrigerator, and also slaughtered her dog.

The incident occurred in June 2025. A few months earlier, he had returned from the war, where he had been recruited from the colony. In prison, the man was serving a 15-year sentence for the murder of an acquaintance.

For the new crimes, he was sentenced to eight years and one month in a strict regime colony. As mitigating circumstances, the court took into account his participation in hostilities and state awards.

Another story comes from Buryatia. In April of this year, a 45-year-old burned woman was admitted to a local hospital with injuries to almost her entire body, including her mouth and airways. Doctors fought for her life for a week, but were unable to save her.

It turned out that the woman was set on fire by her 39-year-old partner. The court in Buryatia sentenced him to 16 years in a strict regime for the murder with particular cruelty, and took into account his participation in the war, awards and injuries as mitigating circumstances.

He also came to the war from prison. He was previously convicted of rape, and in 2019 he was sentenced to 14 years in a maximum security colony for group robbery and intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm that caused death.

More than a third of the former prisoners committed murder not for the first time, and another 31 of the 148 previously convicted contractors had already served time for causing serious harm to health that resulted in death.

The sentences for former prisoners are up to 14 years in prison, and for other military personnel – up to 12 years. In cases where war veterans were tried for brutal murders or the murders of several people, the sentences were up to life imprisonment, the article says.

In addition to the 551 people who died, the sample included 465 people who suffered at the hands of war participants. All of them suffered severe injuries up to disability, but survived.

252 people were injured at the hands of former prisoners. One of them is a resident of the Tver region who was recruited for the war in 2022 from a colony where he was serving a sentence for theft.

Already in 2023, the occupier returned from the war, and in 2024 he received new convictions. Last October, he punched his mother nine times in the head and body because she was drunk. The woman was hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage and fractures, and the occupier was sent to a general regime colony for two years and nine months.

Most of the cases are domestic conflicts, with alcohol and drugs involved in 50% of the cases, the investigation says.

Almost one-third of all cases under the article on causing life-threatening serious harm to health resulted in suspended sentences, according to the analysis.

Moreover, while former prisoners were given suspended sentences for causing serious harm to health in only 21% of cases (40 out of 189), other military personnel were given suspended sentences in 49% of cases (63 out of 129).

In more than 50% of crimes, the occupiers use "weapons": knives, sticks, bottles, shovels, axes, pipe cuttings, frying pans, scissors, beer mugs, stools, traumatic guns, and more. Such attacks have grave consequences for the victims.

Another 48 people who survived were seriously injured in assassination attempts, 80 in road accidents, and 11 in excess of self-defense and negligence.

The journalists also found that participation in the war almost always mitigates the sentence. Out of more than 700 court rulings analyzed, in less than 10% of cases, judges did not take into account the participation of the accused in hostilities as a mitigating circumstance. In 90%, it was taken into account. In these cases, in addition to participation in the war, the courts took into account "state awards," "injuries," "combat veteran" status, etc.

The report stated that the number of actual crimes committed by the occupiers was much higher. After the outbreak of the war, garrison courts practically stopped publishing rulings in such cases, although the number of crimes committed by combatants increased many times over compared to pre-war statistics.

At the same time, the proportion of the occupiers who have returned is still small. Even if we believe the official statements of the authorities, no more than 140,000 Russian soldiers have returned from the front.

• On January 2, 2025, the Foreign Intelligence Service reported that as of November 2024, Russia recruited to participate in the war against Ukraine from 140,000 to 180,000 people serving sentences in prisons.
• The DIU predicted that in 2025 to replenish losses occupation army in the war against Ukraine, Russia expects to use at least 126,000 soldiers from the so-called "special forces".