From Soccer Star To Soldier: Russian Player Aleksei Bugayev Dies In Ukraine Conflict

Russian media said that Aleksei Bugayev, an ex-player for Russia’s national soccer team who had taken part in the 2004 UEFA European Championship, has been killed in the ongoing war in Ukraine on Sunday.

Bugayev’s father, Ivan Bugayev, confirmed the news to the Sport24 outlet, saying, “Unfortunately, the news about Aleksei’s death is true. It happened today,” as quoted by the TASS news agency. Anton Smirnov, Bugayev’s agent, told RIA news agency that the intensity of fighting has made it impossible to recover the former player’s body for burial.

Bugayev was 43 when he died, playing two caps for the Russian national team in Euro 2004. At the club level, Bugayev played for Torpedo and Lokomotiv Moscow-based teams as well as provincial teams before he retired in 2010 at age 29.

In September, Bugayev was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison for drug trafficking by a court in southern Russia. Serving his sentence, he expressed his desire to go and fight in Ukraine in response to active recruitment by Russian authorities in prisons to fill the ranks for the conflict.

Bugayev’s death is the latest in a growing list of lives lost to the war, which has now stretched nearly three years.