Influential Russian colonel found dead in office with five bullets in his chest, Moscow: ‘Suicide!’

A senior Russian colonel who played a role in Putin’s partial mobilisation shot himself five times in the chest in his commander’s office after allegedly taking responsibility for some of the problems associated with the invasion of Ukraine, his widow has claimed.

Colonel Vadim Boyko, 44, deputy head of the Pacific Makarov Naval Higher School in Vladivostok, was found dead on 16 November with multiple gunshot wounds and his death was described as a suicide.

Just a few days after her husband’s death, Yulia Boiko wrote an open letter to Putin, asking him to get personally involved in the investigation into the death of her husband, whom she described as “a patriot of his country, a true officer and a professional in his field”.

The five-page typed letter was written on 20 November, but was only published by the local News Vladivostok on Sunday.

According to Yulia’s letter, in mid-September – around the time Putin outlined his plan to mobilise 300,000 reservists – her husband was responsible for the reception and accommodation of new recruits at the naval school.

Since then, the widow says, her husband has spent most nights at work, facing many logistical problems, but without the support of his superiors. At some point, according to Julia, Boyko realised that he was “being set up as a scapegoat for all the failures and shortcomings.”

Later, Boyko was given the task of repairing military vehicles to be sent to Ukraine and preparing newly mobilised soldiers for combat. But he soon encountered “major problems”, namely that the equipment was “unfit” for use.

“You will agree that if military equipment that has been a museum exhibit for years is now handed over to Boyk to be sent to the front, he cannot, with a wave of his hand, correct the mistakes made by someone else. .” Julia wrote in her letter.

Boyko confronted his superior, the head of the naval school, Rear Admiral Oleg Zhuravliev, but instead of addressing the “fatal” problems, her husband’s boss, according to Yulia, assured him that “everything would be fine”, then took sick leave and “put” all the responsibility on his deputy.

Julia Bojko said that her husband was overwhelmed with stress, that he had been suffering from insomnia for a month and that he had lost more than 15 kilograms.

In mid-November, the military commissars in charge of investigating conscripts’ complaints threatened the colonel with criminal charges and fines totalling 100 million roubles ($1.6 million) over faulty military equipment.

Two days later, Boyko arrived at the naval school, entered his boss’s office, sat down at his desk and shot himself five times in the chest with his own service weapon.

His widow pointed out that her husband did not shoot himself in the head “to end everything as quickly as possible”, but committed “suicide” to send a signal to Putin that “a catastrophe is happening, something must be done about it”. And this homeland is in danger.”/Jutarnji.hr/