A Russian submarine commander blamed for atrocities in Ukraine was gunned down on his morning jog in Krasnodar—and his killer likely knew just where to find him thanks to his habit of posting his running routes on a popular exercise app.
Stanislav Rzhitsky, commander of a submarine in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and deputy head of mobilization efforts in Krasnodar, was shot four times in the back and chest in broad daylight on Monday morning, according to local media reports. The Investigative Committee has opened a murder investigation into the brazen hit.
Russian media claims investigators believe the 42-year-old’s assassination was “ordered from Ukraine,” though Ukrainian authorities have painted a much murkier picture of the who-dunnit mystery. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate confirmed Rzhitsky’s murder on Tuesday but did not claim responsibility for it. They noted only that he had commanded a Russian submarine “involved in missile attacks on Ukraine.” They said he’d been shot seven times with a Makarov pistol.
Commander Stanislav Rzhitsky
Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov denied Kiev's involvement in the killing. Budanov wrote on Telegram on Tuesday that the “roots” of the murder “should be sought within Russia itself, where internal protest against the Ukraine war is growing.”
The Krasnodar submarine, equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles, was blamed by the Ukrainian media for an attack on Vinnytsia last year that killed 27 people. Rzhitsky was also listed in a Ukrainian database that names and shames all those accused of war crimes.
But Ukrainian authorities say Rzhitsky had also made enemies in the Russian military after refusing to launch any more missile strikes on Ukraine due to the risks to the civilian population. In a statement, the Department of Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed Rzhitsky “eliminated himself after refusing to further carry out the command’s combat orders.”
Bizarrely, Rzhitsky’s own family claims he isn’t even in the military anymore. He was not involved in the "special military operation” against Ukraine.
In comments to the Baza Telegram channel, Rzhitsky’s father said he was formally dismissed from the military in August 2022. He joined the Krasnodar administration a few months later. That’s where he served as deputy chief of the department overseeing mobilization in the southern city. “He didn’t participate in the war,," his father said.
Rzhitsky had not received threats at the time of his murder, his family and friends said. But it appears he may have inadvertently made it easy for his killer or killers to find him: Rzhitsky regularly posted his running routes on the popular exercise app Strava, and he usually stuck to the same route, according to Baza. “Largely thanks to this, it was not difficult for the killer to choose a convenient spot for execution," Baza noted.
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