Two more former convicts recruited by the Wagner mercenary group have been handed lengthy prison terms for murders in Siberia.
A court in the Siberian region of Khakassia on September 9 sentenced a former Wagner Group mercenary pulled from prison to fight in Ukraine to eight years in prison for shooting a man to death for questioning his parking.
Andrei Ashcheulov was serving an 18-year prison term for leading a criminal group when he was recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine in 2023.
He was pardoned after he returned from the war.
Also on September 9, a court in the Siberian region of Omsk sentenced another former inmate and Wagner recruit, Sergei Kozlov, who killed his pregnant 18-year-old girlfriend in October 2023.
The Omsk regional court also ordered the 36-year-old Kozlov to pay 12 million rubles ($11,060) to his victim's family.
In 2021, Kozlov was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for attacking a woman and her daughter with an ax. In 2022, he was recruited by Wagner and went to fight in Ukraine.
A year ago, he returned from the war.
In a report in July, the Agentstvo Telegram channel said that as of October 4, 2023, 27 people had been killed in 20 incidents by former military personnel who returned home from the war in Ukraine.
According to Agentstvo, 12 of the registered deadly incidents involved former Wagner mercenaries.
Courts in Russia tend to hand mitigated sentences to such persons, citing their "patriotism" and "contributions" they made to Russia's war against Ukraine.
Wagner's late leader and founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in late June 2023 that 32,000 former inmates recruited by his group from prison had returned home after being granted clemency as part of their remuneration for fighting in Ukraine.