Lieutenant Colonel Irek Magasumov (L) has been convicted of the murder of Daria Kiseleva (R) (Picture: east2west)
A Russian commander who received one of the Kremlin’s highest honours has been convicted for murdering an 18-year-old female acquaintance.
Lieutenant Colonel Irek Magasumov was celebrating with two subordinates and two women at a cafe in the occupied Ukrainian region of Luhansk just days after he received the Gold Star Hero of Russia medal, the Kremlin’s highest honour, last August.
One of the women, 18-year-old Daria Kiseleva, is understood to have asked the commander, who was drunk at the time, to allow her to shoot bottles with his service pistol in a nearby park.
She fired two shots before the Lt Col took his gun back and shot her in the chest, a court heard.
At his military trial for the killing, Magasumov, was found guilty of killing Kiseleva.
The 36-year-old was sentenced to 11 years in prison by the military court in Luhansk.
It followed after one of his subordinates had initially taken the blame, and after Magasumov had later attempted to claim the gun had gone off accidentally as he’d re-holstered it.
The commander was also convicted of stealing a car after he went on the run following the shooting.
Magasumov will reportedly atone for his crimes by returning to the frontline rather than serving a prison sentence (Picture: east2west)
Kiseleva died of a single gunshot wound to the chest (Picture: east2west)
He has since been stripped of his medal, which is reported to have been given to him by President Vladimir Putin himself.
However, the court is understood to have allowed Magasumov to retain his rank, and to return to the frontline of the conflict rather than serve his sentence in jail.
Magasumov was personally awarded the Kremlin’s highest honour, the Gold Star Hero of Russia medal, by President Vladimir Putin last August (Picture: east2west)
It comes as the Putin regime continues to drive the Russian economy deeper into a state of total war and nuclear preparedness.
The Russian president is understood to have called for resuming production of intermediate-range nuclear missiles that had otherwise previously been banned under a treaty with the United States.
Mr Putin said during a recent meeting of Russia’s national security council: ‘We need to start production of these strike systems and then, based on the actual situation, make decisions about where – if necessary to ensure our safety – to place them.’
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