On 4 January 2026, 35-year-old Russian Vladimir Muratov was killed on the Kherson front. The man was the first secretary of the district committee of the KPRF, sold synthetic drugs and fought as part of the PMC ‘Wagner’. Thanks to his education and experience working with missile systems, Muratov for a time served as head of air defense in the so-called ‘LPR’. In occupied Luhansk, the man rose to the rank of colonel, fighting against Ukrainians since 2014.
This is reported by correspondents of ‘IPC-Pivden’.
According to Russian media, Muratov was killed along with his commander. His mother confirmed her son’s death in a comment to Russian journalists.
Muratov was from the town of Degtyarsk in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. He worked at the Yekaterinburg design bureau ‘Novator’. The skills acquired there later proved useful to him in ‘building up’ the air defense in the so-called ‘LPR’. The man was a member of the KPRF and served as the first secretary of that party’s district committee in Degtyarsk.
In 2014 he went to eastern Ukraine and joined the armed formations of the ‘LPR’ grouping. He later led an air defense unit and received the rank of ‘colonel’ of the so-called ‘LPR’.
In November 2022 Muratov signed a contract with the PMC ‘Wagner’ while in a Russian penal colony. He was serving a sentence for participation in an organized group for the distribution of synthetic drugs (Art. 228.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). After serving with ‘Wagner’ in 2023 he signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense and went back to the front.