Schizophrenic Hammer-Wielding Serial Killer Freed to Join Ukraine War

A Russian serial killer sentenced to 22 years for a string of brutal murders has been freed from prison early to join the country’s war against Ukraine.

Yury Gritsenko, 62, tried to join a unit of the infamous Storm Z last September, but was deemed unfit for health reasons and was instead assigned to help the military with medical evacuations, according to the well-connected SHOT Telegram channel.

Gritsenko had been slated for release from prison later this summer, but asked to be sent to the battlefield so that he could earn some money to build a new life as a free man. A former police officer, he was fired from the force for drunken behavior and carried out his first murder in 1993, when he beat a woman to death with a frying pan.

Read more at The Daily Beast.