Russian who put lover’s body through meat grinder pardoned

A Russian convicted murderer who killed his girlfriend and put her body through a meat grinder — and who shares a last name with the president of Ukraine — has been pardoned for fighting in the war.

Dmitry Zelensky, 41, a Chechen war veteran from the Perm region, strangled to death 27-year-old Tatiana Melekhina with his bare hands in 2018 and then attempted to cover up the horrific crime by cutting up her body and turning it into mincemeat.

“I butchered her body, ran it through a meat grinder, collected the bones into three bags, and threw them in the river,” Zelensky was quoted as calmly telling investigators after turning himself in.

A year later, Zelensky was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison — but he served less than half of his term before being recruited in November 2022 by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary group to fight in Ukraine, according to Russian news outlets.

In April of this year, after serving 6 months on the front lines, Zelensky returned from the war zone — and two months later received a pardon from the Russian government, his mother, Galina Zelenskaya, confirmed to the news outlet 59.ru.

Since then, the ex-convict has been living with his aunt in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine and making plans to move to the town of Anapa on the Black Sea coast to work in construction.

Galina Zelenskaya said she believes her son’s pardon was well-deserved because he has shown remorse for his actions.

The victim’s sister has expressed dismay that the family has not been notified of Zelensky’s release and pardon, even though she said officials were supposed to keep Melekhina’s loved ones apprised of the convict’s whereabouts.

Melekhina was working as an accountant and living in the city of Perm when she met Zelensky — a man 9 years her senior working as a machinist — and moved in with him in the tiny town of Gubakha. She reportedly did not know at the time that her new boyfriend had a wife and daughter.

On June 21, 2018, Melekhina called her father to tell him that she was on her way to Perm. She then vanished without a trace.

Zelensky initially told his girlfriend’s family that he gave her a lift to the city and didn’t know what happened to her afterward.

But later the man went to the police and confessed to killing and slaughtering the woman.

Zelensky alleged that he and Melekhina got into a fight because she spoke ill of his childhood friend — a claim that was later refuted by the friend who told police that he never met the girlfriend.

The verbal dispute between Zelenky and Melekhina turned into a scuffle, during which the man claimed his girlfriend kicked him in the groin, was throwing things, and yelling that she was fed up with everything.

“I became angry. I wanted to calm her down,” Zelensky told investigators. “She was screaming. I grabbed her by the throat from behind, put her in a chokehold… I dragged her while continuing to restrain her and tightening my grip on her throat. She stopped breathing.”

His mother said that Zelensky disposed of the victim’s body because he was scared and wanted to cover up the crime.

However, he later came clean to his sister and wife, also named Tatiana.

During Zelensky’s trial, Melekhina’s father said: “I want him to go from prison to the cemetery.”

Zelesnky’s sister, who attended the proceedings, begged the victim’s family members for forgiveness.

She said that her brother “wasn’t always like this,” and claimed that he “changed” after serving in the Second Chechen War.

His mother said she believes her son ultimately agreed to fight in Ukraine to “atone for what he did” — but also to shorten his sentence.

Zelensky will not be returning to his hometown at the request of his sister. Meanwhile, his ex-wife has severed all contact with him and his family — and even changed her and her daughter’s last names, his mom said.