They beat a farmer to death on his property and fled with millions: two suspects face life imprisonment

April 24 2026 the police of Mykolaiv region and the Mykolaiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office reported the detention of two residents of Kirovohrad Oblast, who are suspected of the brutal murder of the 75-year-old head of a farming enterprise in the Novomar’ivska community of Voznesensk district.

A report about the discovery of the body of a local resident was received on the emergency number 102 on the morning of April 22. The owner of the farm was found lifeless in the yard by his worker. A forensic medical examiner determined that the man died from multiple head injuries. Law enforcement also established that the attackers may have taken a significant sum of the victim’s money and other agricultural property.

Investigators, criminal investigation operatives, forensic specialists of the regional police headquarters, police from Police Station No. 1 of the Voznesensk district department, the district police department, as well as canine handlers with service dogs were involved in solving the crime.

At the scene, forensic experts collected traces, investigators seized physical evidence, operatives identified witnesses, checked the victim’s circle of contacts, reviewed recordings from surveillance cameras and worked through people and vehicles that could have been near the crime scene that evening. According to the police, within a day law enforcement reconstructed the full sequence of events – from preparation for the crime to details of the murder itself. The suspects turned out to be two men who knew each other from Kirovohrad Oblast aged 36 and 38 years.

As the investigation established, on the evening of April 21 they arrived in the village where the farmer lived in a VAZ-21099 car. According to the police, the men had purchased the car several months earlier without re-registering the ownership. After that the suspects called the farmer and lured him outside. There, according to the investigation, they inflicted several deadly blows to his head. The victim died at the scene.

Having taken the keys to all premises, the attackers took the victim’s money and other property, after which they fled. About 15 kilometers from the crime scene they, according to the police, set the VAZ on fire at the side of a dirt road to hide traces, and then switched to the older offender’s crossover, which they had left there in advance.

April 23 investigators and operatives, with force support from fighters of the management “KORD” of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad oblasts detained both suspects at their places of residence – in Kropyvnytskyi and Bobrynets. The arrests were carried out in accordance with Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.

During urgent searches, investigators seized fiscal documents issued in the name of the deceased, money totaling more than 2 million hryvnias in national and foreign currency, sunflower seed planting material that the deceased farmer sold, as well as other physical evidence. All seized items were sent for expert examination.

Under the procedural supervision of the Voznesensk District Prosecutor’s Office, the men were notified of suspicion under paragraph 12 of Part 2 of Article 115 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – intentional murder committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy. The article’s sanction provides punishment from 10 to 15 years of imprisonment or life imprisonment. The prosecutor’s office reported that the issue of choosing a preventive measure for the suspects is currently being decided.

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