Former Russian submarine commander Stanislav Rschitzki has been shot dead while jogging in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. Because of the attack on the man, a murder investigation had been initiated, the local investigative authorities announced on Tuesday. Rschitzki’s relatives and friends denied information that the 42-year-old was involved in the shelling of Ukrainian cities at the beginning of the Russian war of aggression.

Perpetrators could have located ex-commanders via jogging app

According to Duma deputy and former mayor of Krasnodar, Yevgeny Pervyshev, Rzhitzki was shot in the back. Russian media speculated that the perpetrators knew the officer’s running route from a jogging app. Accordingly, Rschitzki regularly published his runs on the Internet and did not change his running route.

Rzhitzkiy worked in the Krasnodar city administration, where he was responsible for the mobilization of recruits. However, information about his service in the Russian Black Sea Fleet is contradictory. Rschitzki was wanted in Ukraine as a war criminal.

Rschitzki’s role in the Ukraine war is disputed

As a submarine commander, he was involved in the shelling of the city of Vinnytsia, the Ukrainian military said on Tuesday. The city had been shelled with Kalibr sea-launched missiles. “Later, however, he came to the conclusion of the inefficiency of missile strikes, which posed great risks to the civilian population,” said a statement from Kiev. “Apparently he was liquidated by his own people because of his refusal to carry out the orders of the military leadership.” The head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov, denied that his organization was involved in the assassination.

However, according to his father, Rschitzki never took part in the war against Ukraine. The Telegram channel Baza quoted him as saying that he had already submitted an application for dismissal at the end of 2021, which was granted. The dismissal officially did not take place until the summer of 2022, but in the meantime Rschitzki no longer had any command, but was on land in Sevastopol in Crimea, which had been annexed by Russia since 2014. He had not received any threats, nor had he behaved unusually before his assassination.