A criminal with the terrifying nickname the ‘Sosnovka Maniac’ is on the run after the serial killer rapist was freed from prison to help Putin’s forces fight in the Ukraine war
A convicted serial killer and rapist known as the “Sosnovka Maniac” has vanished after fighting for Putin’s army in Ukraine, triggering a massive manhunt for the deranged savage.
Andrey Kiyko, 41, was sentenced to 25 years for murdering three women and carrying out a series of knife-point rapes and strangulation attacks in a forest park in St Petersburg, Russia. Despite his grotesque crimes, he was freed by the Kremlin, signing a contract with the Russian Defence Ministry, and was sent to fight in Ukraine.
However, after the menace was wounded on the frontline and admitted to a military hospital, he then fled and went on the run. Kiyko escaped from a military hospital in Kronstadt in early autumn last year, but astonishingly, his disappearance was kept under wraps for months by the army before a formal search began in May.
Residents in the Leningrad region said men identifying themselves as Defence Ministry personnel had been going door-to-door showing photographs of the fugitive killer. Kiyko became infamous in Russia as the “Sosnovka strangler” after a series of brutal attacks in and around Sosnovka Park between 2004 and 2007.
Investigators said he stalked lone women late at night before grabbing them from behind, locking his arm around their necks and threatening them with a knife. He was seen on video during a murder reconstruction as part of a criminal investigation.
One Russian police officer later described how the killer told psychiatrists he was driven by “fear” and enjoyed the moment victims realised they were trapped.
“He wandered around the forest park and the surrounding areas, watching for girls late at night — around midnight or 1 a.m.,” the officer said in a Russian television documentary.
“He attacked them from behind, always doing the same thing. With one arm, he locked his elbow around the victim’s neck and strangled her. In his other hand he held a knife.” He“did not care about hair colour or what the victim was wearing. What excited him was something else,” said the officer.
“It was important for him to feel fear – to know that people were afraid of him. The greatest thrill he experienced, as he told a psychiatrist, came in those first moments when the girl became terrified and tried to resist, and he immediately crushed that resistance. That was it.
“For him, that was the most important part.”
Kiyko was initially convicted of two murders, multiple rapes and robberies, before later confessing to a third killing while serving his sentence. He had 15 known victims, killing three of them.
Russian outlet Fontanka reported he joined the military from prison in 2024 despite still having seven years left on his sentence. He is one of thousands of rapists and killers released early from long sentences to fight for Putin.
According to reports, Kiyko was wounded in combat in January 2025 and later transferred to a military rehabilitation hospital in Kronstadt, near St Petersburg. His reported disappearance has reignited criticism of Russia’s recruitment of violent offenders for the war in Ukraine. There is also concern at the cover-up by defence officials, with police furious they were not told.
“His escape was concealed, and the police were only informed later,” said a source
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