The body of Tajik national Bulbul Davlatshoyev, who was killed in Ukraine, was returned to Tajikistan.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi, reports that the 47-year-old Bulbul Davlatshoyev was naïve of Dousti (formerly Jilikul) district in Khatlon province.
According to his relatives, Bulbul Davlatshoyev received a jail term in 2007 for drug trafficking and was serving his jail term in a prison in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, “but was killed in the war in Ukraine.”
An official within the Dousti district administration has confirmed the information about the death of Bulbul Davlatshoyev but without details.
Meanwhile, one for Davlatshoyev’s relatives told Radio Ozodi that according to information from the Russian side, Bulbul Davlatshoyev joined the war in Ukraine on October 19, 2022. At the same time, it is reportedly not known how the convict got into the war zone in another country.
Bulbul’s brother, Eraj Davlatshoyev told Radio Ozodi that the Russian authorities “named the official cause of his death as a bullet wound to the chest and heavy bleeding.”
Bulbul’s relatives do not understand under what conditions he was sent to the war in Ukraine.
Most likely, Bulbul Davlatshoyev joined the war in Ukraine in exchange for amnesty.
Probably Russia had pardoned an imprisoned Tajik national so he could join the fight in Ukraine, where he was killed.
It is noted that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, businessman has recruited prisoners to fight in Ukraine.
The BBC reported in September last year that the head of Russia's shadowy Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, has appeared in leaked footage attempting to recruit prisoners to fight in Ukraine. Mr. Prigozhin reportedly told prisoners their sentences would be commuted in exchange for service with his group.
While Russian law does not allow commutation of prison sentences in exchange for mercenary service, Mr. Prigozhin insisted that "nobody goes back behind bars" if they serve with his group, according to the BBC.
