A glamorous Russian escort has been charged with the assassination of a high-ranking Ukrainian defector who was blown up by a bomb in a trash can, according to reports.
Margarita Reut, 32, was arrested in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea after Thursday’s blast killed Robert Shageev — an officer in the Kremlin’s Black Sea Fleet who was wanted for high treason, according to the Telegraph.
The blast, allegedly carried out on Kyiv’s orders, killed the 49-year-old commander on the spot.
Reut was quickly arrested and confessed, according to reports. She was remanded on a charge of terrorism leading to death, according to Russian-based E2W News.
Reut was remorseless, boldly answering “no” when asked if she regretted the killing, according to Mash, a Russian news channel with links to security services cited by the Telegraph, which said that she had planned to flee the country after the assassination.
The Russian national appeared on escort websites and also worked as a biologist producing floral-infused vaginal suppositories, according to the reports.
She was born in Yaroslavl, a city about 160 miles northeast of Moscow. She also previously lived in Sochi, a Black Sea resort city known for hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics, and frequently visited Crimea, according to Mash.
It’s unclear when or how she allegedly became a Ukrainian intelligence agent.
Reut was previously arrested in July 2025 after shouting “serves you right, Russians!” on a public train from Samara to Adler after news broke about a Ukrainian drone attack on a rail station in Russia’s Rostov region, the Telegraph reported.
She was detained for two days for resisting arrest and fined $365 for “discrediting” the Russian military, according to E2W News.
She could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted in the bombing, according to the Russian-based news service.
Shageev, a Ukrainian deserter who jumped ship and joined the Russian army after the 2014 annexation of Crimea, was walking down a flight of stairs when a trash bin beside him exploded.
Shageev was wanted by Ukraine for high treason over his actions as the acting commander of the Ukrainian vessel Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv’s sole submarine during the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea.
During the invasion, Shageev boasted that his unit would hold out until the bitter end — only for the commander to fork over the vessel and defect to the Russian military.
Shageev has been previously accused of serving in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with his fleet allegedly among those that fired submarine-launched missile attacks during the war.
