Vienna, the capital of Austria, has become the site of one of the most shocking crimes of recent years. 21-year-old Danylo Kuzmin, son of the Assistant Director of Magistrates in Kharkov, was brutally murdered on the night of 25 to 26 November 2025. The perpetrators, two Ukrainian citizens, tortured the victim for several hours, forced access to his cryptocurrency portfolio, then set fire to him and the car. The Austrian police have described it as one of the cruelest crimes they have ever faced.
Background and victim
Danylo Kuzmin was a 21-year-old student who had lived and studied in Vienna for several years. His father, Serhii Kuzmin, serves as Deputy Mayor of Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine. A young man led ordinary student life, but his family ties may have attracted the attention of criminals. According to sources, Kuzmin had considerable resources in cryptocurrency, which became the main motive for the crime.
The crime occurred in the center of Vienna, in the underground garage of the luxury hotel SO/Vienna. Witnesses heard male voices and noises, and a large pool of blood was discovered in the stairwell. The victim was attacked, beaten with a blunt instrument to the head and tortured for about four hours. The perpetrators forced passwords into cryptocurrency accounts from which they made numerous transfers to their accounts.
Crime course
According to investigators, after Kuzmin's tortures, still alive, he was thrown into the trunk of his Mercedes. The car was flooded with petrol – the perpetrators had previously bought a canister of fuel – and set on fire near the railway line on the outskirts of the city. A neighbor reported the fire, and firefighters found the body in the back seat, burned 80 percent. Cause of death is likely asphyxiation or heat shock caused by fire. A melted canister was found at the scene, which confirmed a deliberate arson.
One witness recorded a burning vehicle, which helped identify it. The family reported Kuzmin missing when they couldn't contact him. Austrian police quickly determined the identity of the victim through Ukrainian media, who first reported that it was the son of a prominent official.
The perpetrators and the arrest
The perpetrators were two Ukrainians: a 19-year-old and a 45-year-old. The younger one studied at the same college as the victim, suggesting that they knew each other personally. After the crime, they fled to Ukraine, crossing the border. They were arrested in Odessa on 29 November 2025, the day after arriving. During the revision they found large sums of money in dollars and evidence of cryptocurrency transfers.
International arrest warrants were issued, but Austrian police ruled out extradition, probably due to ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Oberst Gerhard Winkler of the Landeskriminalamt in Vienna stated that the body was heavily burned, with traces of head injuries. A police spokesman stressed that the motive was greed, not politics.
Background
The crime shook public opinion in Austria and Ukraine. Austrian investigators emphasize that this is one of the most brutal cases in their careers. In Ukraine, media speculate about possible debts of the victim, although the official motive is to rob cryptocurrency. The Kuzmin family did not comment publicly on the incident, but the victim's father, as a high official, may be the target of further speculation.
Our Ukrainian brothers would never do such a thing in life.