Yuriy Kuzmenko was convicted in 2011 of 13 murders of women in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, and sentenced to life imprisonment. The count is also given as 14. The killings took place in separate events between 2006 and 2009. He was arrested in May 2009. After his arrest he told investigators he had killed 206 people. That figure is his own claim and was not proved in court.
The case drew attention across Ukraine for the number of victims, the length of the search and the gap between the proved killings and his claim. Years later it became the basis for a Ukrainian television series, Tykha Nava, whose story differs from the real case in many respects.
His name appears in several forms. In Ukrainian it is Yurii Kuzmenko (Юрій Кузьменко); in Russian it is Yuri Kuzmenko (Юрий Кузьменко). Yuriy is the transliteration most often used in English.
Kuzmenko lived in Boyarka, a town in Kyiv Oblast just outside the capital. He had worked as a taxi driver and as a carpenter. He was married, and he and his wife raised her son together. Relatives and acquaintances later called him polite and kind.
His date of birth is not on record. He was arrested in Kyiv in 2002 on a robbery charge, received a sentence of one year and was released on parole after eight months. Whether that case was connected to the later killings is not on record.
The killings were committed in separate events over about three years. The first confirmed killing is dated June 10, 2006; the victim was a 20-year-old woman. An earlier event, in May 2005, involving a 68-year-old woman, is also given but unconfirmed, so the series is also given as 2005 to 2009.
The victims were adult women, the oldest about 90. His last victim, in 2009, was a 19-year-old woman. Details of the individual events are not on record.
Police in Kyiv Oblast spent years looking for the man responsible. Officers checked more than 10,000 people and thousands of vehicles. The case file grew to ten volumes, more than 100 people worked on the search, and senior officials set aside tens of millions of hryvnias for it. A senior investigator of the Interior Ministry's main investigative directorate is credited with the arrest.
Kuzmenko was arrested in May 2009.
After his arrest Kuzmenko told investigators that he had killed 206 people. The figure is widely repeated in Ukraine. Investigators treated it as unconfirmed, and the court dealt only with the killings that investigators could prove, 13, also given as 14. No court has found that he killed 206 people.
A court found Kuzmenko guilty in 2011 and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He admitted guilt at trial. The name of the court, the exact date of the verdict, the legal wording of the charges and any appeal are not on record.
The proved count is 13, also given as 14.
Kuzmenko was sent to prison in Ukraine under a life sentence, which carries no right to early release. In 2025 he was reported to be serving it.
The television series Tykha Nava, a recent Ukrainian production, takes the Boyarka case as its starting point. The screen story is fiction in many respects and differs from the real case.
The number of proved murders: 13, also given as 14.
The first year: 2006, also given as 2005 for an unconfirmed earlier event.
The claim of 206 killings: his own statement during questioning, not proved and not part of the conviction.
The exact wording of the charges, the court and the verdict date are not on record.
2002: arrested in Kyiv on a robbery charge; sentenced to one year and paroled after eight months.
May 2005: an earlier, unconfirmed event (a 68-year-old woman).
June 10, 2006: first confirmed killing, of a 20-year-old woman, in Kyiv Oblast.
2006 to 2009: further killings of women in separate events in Kyiv Oblast.
2009: the last victim, a 19-year-old woman.
May 2009: arrested.
2009: tells investigators he has killed 206 people (a claim only).
2011: a court finds him guilty of 13 murders (also given as 14) and sentences him to life imprisonment.
2025: reported to be serving the sentence in a prison in Ukraine.
2026: the Ukrainian television series Tykha Nava, based loosely on the case, is in the news.