Russian serial rapist and murderer who won a valor medal fighting in Ukraine has likely died at the front

A convicted serial killer known as the “Sosnovsky Maniac” has likely died fighting in Ukraine, according to Fontanka. The killer, Andrei Kiyko, had gone missing at the front, his relatives and fellow servicemen told the St. Petersburg-based news outlet. Fontanka had reported that Kiyko was being sought in the Leningrad region.

In the 2000s, Kiyko carried out a series of attacks on women in St. Petersburg’s Sosnovsky Park, raping and robbing victims and passing their belongings to acquaintances and his mother. He also murdered multiple women. A court convicted him in 2008 of two murders, eight counts of sexual violence, and 11 counts of armed robbery, and sentenced him to 22 years in prison. In 2023, his sentence was extended to 25 years after he was convicted of an additional murder.

According to 47news and Fontanka, Kiyko signed a contract with the Defense Ministry in 2024 and went to fight in the war against Ukraine. During his service, he was wounded several times and received the Medal for Valor.

On May 26, both outlets reported that Kiyko was being sought in the town of Ropsha in the Leningrad region. Their reports indicated that he had fled a military hospital after being wounded, either in the summer or fall of 2025, and that his disappearance had been covered up.

Fontanka has since established that Kiyko is on a federal wanted list in connection with a criminal case for going AWOL. The case was opened after a tip from a member of the public who said they had seen someone resembling Kiyko triggered a preliminary inquiry.

In the same report, Fontanka says that in the spring of 2025 Kiyko was undergoing treatment for a combat wound when he disappeared and was reported AWOL. He was soon found at a hospital in Kronstadt.

A fellow serviceman told the Russian media outlet Rotonda that Kiyko had not fled the hospital and that after being discharged, he returned to the front. The same source confirmed that Kiyko had gone missing at the front roughly six months ago. St. Petersburg police, meanwhile, told Rotonda that they had not placed Kiyko on a wanted list — and no corresponding entry appears in the Interior Ministry’s wanted persons database.

Fontanka also spoke with Kiyko’s mother, who said she was “outraged” by reports that her son was wanted by police. She said that in December 2025, she received a document stating that her son had gone missing in action. Fontanka reports, without citing a source, that drones struck the trench where Kiyko was located, but the bodies of those killed there were never recovered. The Russian law enforcement-linked Telegram channel Shot claims that Kiyko died somewhere in the Donetsk region.

In her conversation with Fontanka, Kiyko’s mother also said her family has no connection to Ropsha, where police are reportedly searching for her son. “What does Ropsha have to do with anything? I’m from St. Petersburg, we all live in St. Petersburg. We have nothing there, we’ve never been anywhere near Ropsha,” she said.

The military and police, Fontanka reports, currently “agree that there is no one to look for.” “But the criminal case and the federal wanted-list entry cannot be closed until Kiyko is officially declared dead,” the outlet states.