Volodymyr Nikityuk

Volodymyr Nikityuk (; born 1970), is a Soviet–Ukrainian serial killer who committed at least three murders and one negligent homicide between 1991 and 2016 in Volyn and Kirovohrad Oblasts out of apparent religious mania. He was suspected in two additional murders, but was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.

The criminal case caused a public outcry due to the severity of the crimes, the religious motivations, and the long length from the beginning of the trial until its conclusion. After almost ten years, Nikityuk was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Early life and first murders Volodymyr Nikityuk was born in 1970 in Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Volyn Oblast. He had a sister. In the mid-1970s, his family moved to the village of Dolgonosy, where Nikityuk spent his childhood and youth. There, he was regarded negatively by everyone around him due to his apparent mental illness and hooliganistic activities. Among the latter was his cruelty to animals, attacking people for seemingly no reason, and setting fire to barns and houses of fellow villagers.

In 1991, Nikityuk got into a quarrel with a neighbor, after which he set fire to a neighbor's room in a dormitory. Unbeknownst to him, the fire caused a girl residing in the room to suffer from severe injuries, from which she eventually succumbed to in the hospital. At the end of 2000, he was suspected of robbing a local pharmacy, whose medicines were later found in the river, but no conclusive evidence of his involvement in the crime was found. At the same time, he constantly wrote something in his notebook, where he made notes and worshipped various Pagan gods such as Svarog, Dazhbog and Perun. Aside from celebrating pagan religious holidays, Nikityuk also told others that he believed in a "living god", but never explained what he meant by that. However, instead of returning home, he decided to stay in Kirovohrad, where he was sheltered by a Pentecostal group. Not long after, a series of murders and disappearances involving children and teenagers began. A more in-depth search led to the recovery of other bones and half-decayed articles of clothing, which were positively identified as belonging to Buts by her relatives.

Another suspected victim was 12-year-old Ilya Makarov, who went missing on 22 May 2016 in the city of Oleksandriia, during the celebration of the Translation of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra to Bari, or, alternatively, Yarilin Day according to the Pagan calendar. In that case, the victim was a young woman who managed to escape him and later identified the assailant as Nikityuk. By order of the Oleksandriia District Court, he was remanded in custody for 60 days, after which a search was conducted in one of the abandoned houses near City Hospital No. 1, where Nikityuk was residing. During the search, officers found personal belongings of some of the recent murder vicitms, most notably Daria Ozarko's purse, which contained deodorant, bandages, and wet wipes. Investigators also took note of a calendar marked with the date of the murders, taking interest of an additional date marked "17 August" with the address of "6 Belinskiy Street" on it.

After his arrest, a blood sample was taken from Nikityuk for genetic and molecular analysis of epithelial particles found under the fingernails of 13-year-old Stanislav Boiko. The results conclusively proved that the particles matched Nikityuk. In addition, it was established that Boiko's SIM card was inserted into Nikityuk's mobile phone on the eve of his death. This also indicated direct contact between the murdered child and Nikityuk, although he denied it.

Ultimately, he was solely charged with the murders of Boiko and Daria Ozorko, as well as robbery and attempted murder. No obvious evidence of his involvement in the cases of Sofia Buts and Ilya Makarov due to the inability to establish the girl's cause of death or the absence of any remains linked to Makarov.

Trial delays During preliminary questioning, Nikityuk refused to admit guilt in the murders, but also failed to provide an alibi for himself. Nikityuk also caused numerous scandals and repeatedly filed motions and complaints about the supposed unlawful actions undertaken by the police and requesting additional forensic testing. At one hearing, when the prosecutor was reading the indictment, Nikityuk scratched his ear, then demanded an ambulance to be called and claimed to have not heard the indictment, thus forcing the prosecutor to read it all anew. He claimed that the actual killers were an unnamed police officer and the drivers of an ambulance registered to another region of the country, who supposedly went around Kirovohrad and killed the victims to harvest and traffick their organs. After said hearing, the prosecutor and the judge told the media that the criminal case consisted of 14 volumes, after which the questioning of the victims would begin, followed by the examination of material evidence, the questioning of more than 300 witnesses, and then the examination of the defendant's testimony, which would likely take several more years.

For unknown reasons, starting in 2019, both the media and law enforcement agencies stopped covering the trial hearings. The trial itself was close to completion in 2022, but was further delayed due to the Russo-Ukrainian war. During this period, Nikityuk continued to file complaints against the prosecutor and the judge, accusing the police of torture and covering up for a supposed organized criminal group of organ traffickers, underground gamblers, and drug traffickers. He subsequently attempted to appeal the refusal to initiate criminal proceedings against his perceived "enemies", but was denied.

In December 2025, the Oleksandriia District Court finally convicted Nikityuk of the murders of Ozarko and Boiko, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The decision was officially confirmed by the Office of the Prosecutor General on 26 December 2025.

Unrelated serial killer In 2005, 11 years before the ritual murders, the media and law enforcement agencies nicknamed an unrelated serial killer "The Oleksandriia Maniac" after he murdered at least seven young girls and women in the city between 1998 and 2005. The perpetrator was a local born in 1959 who, after divorcing his second wife in 1997, started working as a private driver and then officially got a job at a taxi company. He then used this to pick up potential victims off the streets or at public transport stops, lulling them into a false sense of security while driving them to an isolated area, where he would rape and kill them.