A NOTORIOUS Russian MMA fighter and convicted killer rapist has been freed from jail to bolster Putin’s struggling war effort in Ukraine.

Maxim “Mad Max” Novoselov, 51, a former captain of the Russian National Combat Sambo team, was serving a five-year sentence for kidnapping, beating, and raping an 18-year-old girl.

His early release was granted at an unknown date by Vlad himself.

He is now back at military training camps, drilling Russian troops, including elite paratroopers, for combat.

Novoselov, whose nickname stems from his “unbridled behaviour in the ring,” became a celebrity in Russia through MTV appearances and by training Moscow’s elite. 

His latest role sees him rubbing shoulders with Putin’s inner circle, including Major General Apti Alaudinov, the Chechen special forces commander and key figure in Russian war propaganda.

Only the Kremlin leader has the power to cut sentences for serious criminals, and Novoselov was originally due for release in December 2027. 

His criminal history is as brutal as his fighting style — convicted of murder in 1993, he spent 14 years behind bars, reportedly participating in underground fights in jail.

Following his release, he moved to Japan, where he became a popular MMA fighter, only to be jailed again in Russia for drug offences in 2014.

His expertise in Sambo — a Soviet-era martial art designed to enhance the Red Army’s hand-to-hand combat skills — is now being exploited to strengthen Russian forces on the battlefield.

Putin himself is an “Honoured Sambo Coach” and a “Master of Sports in Sambo,” according to the Russian Sambo Federation.

The combat sport, developed under Stalin, remains a core element of Russian military training.

With Russia’s military struggling for manpower and morale, the Kremlin’s decision to unleash “Mad Max” from his cell underscores Putin’s increasing reliance on criminals to prop up his war machine.

It comes as Ukraine blitzed one of Vladimir Putin’s biggest oil plants overnight in the latest humiliating blow for the dictator.

The Kremlin’s fourth-largest oil refinery exploded into flames after being blasted.

Spectacular footage showed the Lukoil-owned Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez ablaze in Nizhny Novgorod region after it was hit by two long-distance military drones from Ukraine. 

Russia’s defence ministry said 104 drones were involved in raids across the west, 11 of which were destroyed over the Smolensk region.

A major nuclear power plant was also among the targets – with air defence systems destroying a drone that attempted to hit Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant near Desnogorsk.

Smolensk region governor Vasily Anokhin said: “One of the drones was shot down during an attempt to attack a nuclear power facility.”

Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant is a key supplier of electricity to western Russia, and the same type as the notorious Chernobyl atomic station.

Debris from a drone “fell in the area of the Smolensk NPP”, pro-Kremlin Shot online media outlet reported.

Anokhin said the power plant – which has three reactors capable of generating 3,000 MW electricity – is operating normally. 

The oil refinery in Kstovo is the latest to be hit in a concerted campaign by Ukraine to damage Putin’s oil infrastructure.