A 27-year-old Russian rapper died by suicide after being drafted to fight for his country in a war he believed was unjust.
According to The U.S. Sun, rapper Walkie, whose real name is Ivan Vitalievich Petunin, shared with his friends that he could not “take the sin of murder on my soul” by becoming a soldier.
On Friday, Walkie’s body was discovered near a high-rise building in Krasnodar, a city in Russia, after talking to his fans about his decision.
This was not the first time he was ordered to serve in the Russian Army. Previously, he had to serve did not enjoy it and told his fans, “If you are watching this video, then I am no longer alive.”
“I can’t take the sin of murder on my soul and I don’t want to. I am not ready to kill for any ideals,” he said.
“I choose to remain in history forever,” he continued. “As a man who did not support what was happening. I am not ready to take up arms and kill my own kind.”
The first way he tried to get out of fighting by getting signed into a mental hospital. When that didn’t work, he said taking his life was “a way to express his final protest.”
His drafting was only one person in the 300,000 extra soldiers that Putin needs to continue his fight with the Ukraine.
The Russo-Ukrainian War has been going on since 2014, with a recent uptick on February 24, 2022.
