Murderer pardoned by Putin re-arrested on suspicion of killing woman

A murderer freed from jail and pardoned by Vladimir Putin to fight in Ukraine has been detained on suspicion of killing a girl, 12, and dumping her body in a well. 

A massive search had been underway for Karina Kabikova after she was reported missing on Tuesday morning on Telegram. 

Now convicted killer Andrei Bykov, 49, has been detained after the child’s body was discovered on Wednesday in a disused well close to an abandoned building in Topki, a town in the Siberian region of Kemerovo in Russia, according to news outlet Ria Novosti.

Investigations are ongoing to establish whether the child was sexually abused. There were reportedly ‘signs of violence’ on the schoolgirl’s body.

Bykov was serving a 14-year sentence for murdering an elderly woman in 2019. He had allegedly struck the pensioner on the head with a bucket, and strangled her with tape. He was supposed to serve until 2032. 

Convicted killer Andrei Bykov, 49, pardoned and freed from jail by Vladimir Putin to fight in Ukraine, who was detained today under the suspicion of killing schoolgirl Karina Kabikova, 12, whose body with signs of violence was found in a well in Topki, a town in the Kemerovo region of Russia. Pictured: Bykov while a prisoner of war in Ukraine

After just three years behind bars, however, he was released under a Putin scheme to send convicts to the frontline.

He had also previously been convicted of involving minors in crime.

He served in the Russian military but was captured by Ukrainian forces last year, and was shown in a video highlighting how Putin was sending killers to fight for him.

In the clip, he spoke about how the Russian defence ministry offered him ‘mountains of gold’ to go and fight.

Bykov had already been convicted at least six times on charges of theft, making death threats, crime involving minors, and murder, according Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Pictured: Murdered schoolgirl Karina Kabikova, 12, whose body was found in a well in Topki, a town in the Kemerovo region of Russia

Karina had been reported missing on Tuesday

In the video he also explained that he led a life of crime, constantly returning to jail. 

‘In 1991, I committed my first crime, and have been regularly in prison ever since,’ he told his Ukrainian interrogator.

‘During the brief periods of freedom, usually two or three months, I did odd jobs.

‘Then, I would commit another crime and return to jail.

‘I was imprisoned for murder, and was supposed to be in prison until 2032.’

Bykov said: ‘On 29 October 2023, people from the [Russian] Ministry of Defence came to my penal colony, IK-29 in Kemerovo, where I was serving my sentence.

‘They started offering contracts to go and fight [against Ukraine].

‘They promised us mountains of gold….’

Earlier this year, Ukraine exchanged him in a prisoner of war swap, and he was allowed to go home to his village of Maly Korchugan, close to Topki. 

According to Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, the number of crimes in Russia committed by convicts recruited from Russian penitentiaries who fought in Ukraine has been on the rise since early 2023.