A Russian serial killer, who has been serving a life sentence since 2015, is hoping to fight alongside the Wagner band in Ukraine, but only after winter to avoid freezing.
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From his cell, Mikhail Popkov became aware of the Wagner missionary group’s recruitment campaign in Russian prisons, from where he also gave an interview to Russian state television.
In that interview, the man confided that fighting in Ukraine would be his dream and that his skills as a former police officer would come in handy, but preferably after the colder months.
“After all, this is not a video game or a fictional book about superheroes. If we face reality, to be honest and objective, if I can wait until January and February – which for me are the coldest – and then fight, then I would have no hesitation in accepting it,” he said.
“I could contribute my military knowledge, I think there is a demand. Even if the equipment is more modern today – for example with electronic radios -; Even though I’ve spent the last 10 years in prison, I don’t think it’s that hard to learn again,” he added.
So far, the militia and its leader Evgueni Prigojine have not responded to Mikhail Popkov’s request, according to RTBF, a Belgian radio and television broadcaster.
The man, nicknamed “the madman of Angarsk” killed 79 women and one policeman. He was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to life imprisonment for the first time in 2015, and a second time in 2018 with the same sentence. In 2020 he would have confessed to his crimes.
In June 2021, he was sentenced by a municipal court to 9 years and 8 months in prison.
He committed most of his crimes in the city of Angarsk in Siberia, killing his victims with axes or hammers, hence his nickname. Only two women are said to have survived his attacks.
– With information from AFP