On Monday morning, Roman Dzhumayev, a militant of the so-called Donetsk republic, was found dead in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
He was shot in the stairwell of a block of flats, lb.ua reports with reference to sourced in the local police.
The man was accused of participating in a terrorist group and illegal armed group as well as using force against a police officer. He was facing a a long prison term, even up to 15 years.
Roman Dzhumayev is of Ukrainian origin, he was born in Mariupol in 1991. In 2014, he went to fight on the side of Russian-backed separatists against the Ukrainian army. He took part in the battle of Debaltseve and the battle for Donetsk Airport. Ukraine opened a criminal case against the native of Mariupol for his participation in illegal armed groups.
In the summer of 2015, Dzhumayev left Donbas and moved to Belarus, where he was staying for about a year. The man settled in the town of Maryina Horka and worked as a sales manager. Not being secretive about his war experience, Dzhumayev granted an interview to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Belarusian law enforcement agencies did not show any interest in him.
In September 2017, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) detained Roman Dzhumayev in Maryino district, when he was trying to cross he demarcation line. According to SBU, the militant was going to visit his parents who live in Mariupol.
From September 2017 to May 2018, he remained in custody, but then he was put under house arrest. Within a few months at liberty, Roman Dzhumayev was close to starting his own business: he inslalled a vendor’s kiosk, but failed to get the authorities’ permission. In 2018, when the police were dismantling the kiosk, Dzhhumayev sprayed gas and attacked a policeman and a veteran of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, for which he got arrested.
However, in early August, a Mariupol court ruled to release Dzhumaev from prison and place him under house arrest again.
