A FORMER Euros football star has been killed fighting in Ukraine. Aleksei Bugayev, 43, signed up to battle for Putin after being handed a nine-and-a-half-year jail sentence for drug trafficking. Bugayev was previously a former member of Russia's national football team.
![[Aleksei Bugayev, top row fourth from L, with his teammates in 2004]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2004-prior-european-nations-championship-960552190.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
He played two matches for the Russian national team in the 2004 European championship and also played for Moscow sides Torpedo and Lokomotiv as well as other provincial sides. The star ended his career in 2010 at the age of 29. In September, Bugayev was sentenced by a court in southern Russia to nine and a half years in prison on drug trafficking charges.
![[Bugayev running during the UEFA Euro 2004 match between Russia and Portugal]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2004-match-russia-portugal-estadio-960552181.jpg?strip=all&w=642)
He later declared his intention to join Putin's war in Ukraine. But on Sunday, Bugayev was killed in battle. His father Ivan Bugayev told the Sport24 news outlet: "Unfortunately, the news about Aleksei's death is true. It happened today.". Intense fighting had made it impossible to retrieve Bugayev's body for burial, his agent said.
