A court in Kharkiv has ordered that Russian citizen Leonid Ryzhikov be held in pretrial detention. He stands accused of killing six Ukrainians: five service members and one civilian, according to reporting by Suspilne. The Insider reconstructed the details of Ryzhikov’s background and found that he has at least four prior convictions.
The detention of a Russian soldier in the Kharkiv Region was initially confirmed on Oct. 14, and on the evening of Thursday, Oct. 15, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) identified the detainee as 36-year-old Leonid Ryzhikov.
In a video published by the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office, Ryzhikov admitted to killing six people. He said that on Oct. 13, he shot a civilian who was fishing at a pond and then killed five Ukrainian service members, all in the Kharkiv Region. He had earlier fled Ukrainian shelling and spent about a week hiding in local forests.
The SBU says Ryzhikov used the call sign “Yula” in the Russian military and had been mobilized from prison in late July of this year.
Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office (@Харківськаобласнапрокуратура)
The Insider found that the St. Petersburg native, born in 1990, had a history of encounters with law enforcement.
In 2008, Ryzhikov was prosecuted twice on drug charges. The first case involved possession of narcotics on an especially large scale, and the second involved large-scale drug distribution. According to police records reviewed by The Insider, he was first charged over possession of the concentrated cannabis product hashish and later over an attempt to sell amphetamine. In the first case, he received a suspended sentence of 1.5 years. In the second, the court sentenced him to 4.5 years in prison. Ryzhikov was released in June 2013.
In March 2015, he was arrested again, this time on a charge of intentionally causing serious bodily harm. According to a judgment available on the Kalininsky District Court website, Ryzhikov attacked a man inside a car on the night of March 1, spraying pepper spray into the man’s face and stabbing him several times on the chin and chest. The victim required stitches. In September of 2015, Ryzhikov was again sent to prison, this time for three years.
After his release, in January 2019 Ryzhikov was arrested again. This time he was prosecuted for multiple crimes.
In September 2018, he stole a Honda Scoopy scooter from an unidentified owner, wheeled it back to his home, and repainted it “so the owner would not be able to recognize it.”
That November he stole a printer worth just over 3,000 rubles ($36) before moving on to larceny on a slightly grander scale. In the early days of 2019, Ryzhikov robbed the Art Polka store in St. Petersburg, taking 7,800 rubles ($94) from the cash register along with goods worth more than 33,000 rubles ($397). The judgment lists more than 30 pairs of headphones, several pairs of socks and mittens, toys, keychains, an MP3 player, and four kaleidoscope tubes. The court documents describe the stolen socks in unusual detail, noting designs featuring deer, bullfinches, and wolves.
Then, on the evening of Jan. 7, Ryzhikov went out while drunk and, according to the judgment, “began harassing passersby and swearing.” He attacked a man he did not know, spraying an aerosol canister into his face and stabbing him in the back with scissors. Ryzhikov was later detained. In December 2019, a court sentenced him to eight years in a high-security penal colony.
The Insider confirmed that Ryzhikov served his sentence at Penal Colony No. 7 in St. Petersburg, also known as “Yablonevka.” He was likely recruited for military service from that prison.
The SBU previously said Ryzhikov served in the 2nd Battalion of Russia’s 1009th Motor Rifle Regiment, part of the 68th Motor Rifle Division of the 6th Combined Arms Army. On Oct. 16, a Kharkiv court ordered him held for two months without the possibility of bail.
Before the ruling, Ryzhikov was asked whether he owned any property that could be offered as bail. He said he did not. Suspilne reported that he faces life imprisonment.
