Once one of Russia's most prominent rights activists and a vocal Kremlin critic, Ildar Dadin has been killed in action with Ukrainian forces during a battle in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
The news of Dadin’s death was confirmed by the Freedom of Russia Legion, according to a report from The Insider. Journalist Ksenia Larina was the first to report Dadin's death over the weekend, with confirmation later provided by Russian opposition figure Ilya Ponomaryov, who lives in Kyiv.
Ponomaryov revealed that Dadin had been killed on October 4.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine
RFE/RL's Ukraine Live Briefing gives you the latest developments on Russia's invasion, Western military aid, the plight of civilians, and territorial control maps. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.
"We have just received confirmation that Ildar Dadin died in a battle in the Kharkiv region," Larina wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on the evening of October 5.
She later explained to Sota that she had learned of the news from Igor Volobuyev, a former vice president of Gazprombank, who is also fighting on the Ukrainian side. Volobuyev had been informed of Dadin’s death by his comrades-in-arms.
Further details of his death have yet to be disclosed.
Initially, Dadin was reported to be fighting with the Siberian Battalion, which consists of Russians from Siberia fighting for Ukraine.
According to Ponomaryov, Dadin transferred to the Free Russia Legion in December 2022.
Dadin rose to prominence in Russia as the first person convicted under a law that penalized repeated violations of rally regulations.
In March 2016, he was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison on this charge, and the law became widely known as the "Dadin law."
A year later, Dadin spoke out about the torture he endured while imprisoned in Russia's northwestern Karelia region.
His conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court in February 2017, and he was subsequently granted 2.2 million rubles ($23,113) in compensation for illegal prosecution.
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, Dadin fled Russia for Poland in March of that year, aiming to join Ukraine's defense. He spent nearly a year in Poland preparing the necessary documents to enlist in a Ukrainian volunteer battalion made up of Russian opposition fighters.
In June 2023, Dadin joined the Siberian Battalion which he viewed as one of the few viable ways for him to fight against Russia on Ukraine's side. He chose the call sign "Gandhi," in honor of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian leader known for advocating nonviolent resistance.