Nikita Penkov was born on November 16, 1995 in the Krasnodar Territory, in the village of Temizhbekskaya in the Kavkazsky District. The village currently has a population of about 5,000.

Penkov graduated from School No. 18 and was then drafted into the Russian Armed Forces. He served in the Airborne Forces and posted photos of himself in uniform on social networks.

A Bomb for an Airborne Controller | Airborne Forces veteran Zaur Gurtsiev killed in an explosion in Stavropol
Nikita tried to build a career in cinematography; a profile of the young man has been preserved on a casting website for actors. For some time, he worked as a technologist at a brewery

The guy's younger sister, Lada Al-Assadi, married an Iraqi citizen and went to live in the Middle East. The young man also had a brother, Alexander.

On social networks, the young man posted photos of relatives, criticized the pension reform, and uploaded videos with jokes by Joseph Stalin. A former colleague of the deceased mentioned Nikita's sleepwalking in an interview with Argumenty i Fakty. Once, he allegedly approached an officer with a fork in his sleep, after which he was sent to the medical unit.

As a teenager, Nikita was fond of video games. Residents of the village described the guy as calm and withdrawn.

He did not have an official job.

Gurtsiev and Penkov were acquainted, although the common-law wife of the deceased, Daria, had never seen the young man. According to the woman, shortly before his death, her husband left the apartment without saying anything. The released CCTV footage shows the guy approaching the official, and then an explosion.