Russian lawmaker Vitaly Milonov claims he killed people while fighting in Ukraine

State Duma Deputy Vitaly Milonov, a member of the ruling United Russia party, told blogger Amiran Sardarov in an interview that he had killed people during the Russia–Ukraine war.

Sardarov asked Milonov whether it was true he had received the Order of Courage during the war. Milonov confirmed he had been awarded the order for “combat operations” but declined to elaborate, saying presidential decrees on such awards “are classified.” The exchange continued:

Milonov volunteered for the front in October 2022 and served in an anti-tank artillery battery. He said in February 2023 that his contract had ended, and a year later, he told the Russian business newspaper Kommersant that he had been wounded in the fighting. In an interview with the pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, he said he had to leave the war in Ukraine because lawmakers were barred from spending extended periods in the war zone.

Milonov serves as deputy chairman of the committee on family protection and issues of fatherhood, motherhood, and childhood in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament. In the fall elections, he will run again, this time in St. Petersburg’s Southern electoral district. In early August, Milonov and several other St. Petersburg lawmakers changed their names on social media for unclear reasons; his accounts are now called “Vitaly, the Choice of Millions.”