Sergei Chepikov, a two-time Olympic champion who supported Russia’s war against Ukraine, has died
Two-time Olympic biathlon champion Sergei Chepikov has died at the age of 59. The Russian athlete supported Russia’s war against Ukraine and was included on Ukraine’s sanctions lists.
Sergey Chepikov won two gold medals at the Olympic Games (in the relay events in 1988 and 1994) and was also a four-time Olympic medalist. He also won a bronze medal in the sprint (1988) and silver medals in the relay (1992, 1994, and 2006).
In addition, he is a two-time world champion and a two-time Biathlon World Cup winner (1990 and 1991).
Chepikov also served as the flag bearer for the Russian national team at the 1994 Olympic Games.
Sergey Chepikov was a deputy in the State Duma of the Russian Federation during its 7th and 8th convocations.
On February 23, 2022, he was added to the European Union’s sanctions list for “supporting and carrying out actions and policies that undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine.”
On February 24, 2022, Chepikov was added to Canada’s sanctions list for voting to recognize the independence of the “so-called republics in Donetsk and Luhansk.”
On March 24, 2022, he was added to the U.S. sanctions list for “complicity in Putin’s war.”
Later, on similar grounds, he was added to the sanctions lists of the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Ukraine, and New Zealand.
This was reported by Russian propaganda media.
Russian officer Viktor Basenko was killed in Donetsk.
Earlier, thanks to OSINT monitoring, it was possible to identify the Russian officers who were killed during a strike on a command post in Donetsk on September 8, 2025.
A high-ranking Russian officer, Colonel Andriy Krestyansky, was killed in Ukraine. He served as a senior instructor and inspector at the Training Center for Command Staff of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
