Between 2013 and 2014, the drunken Kulesh killed three saleswomen in two stores in the Lida District, Grodno Region, after which he stole money and goods.

After his release, Ivan was engaged in temporary part-time work for his neighbours, an auto service station, and a construction site, as well as picking berries and mushrooms.

According to her, Ivan spent his free time drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, playing computer games and sleeping, paying very little attention to her and their child.

[5] Subsequently, Kulesh confessed to this double murder: according to him, he had come to Lida for City Day, got drunk, and, when he ran out of money, decided to steal something and stumbled upon the store.

Finding a metal pipe nearby, he entered the then-closed store through the back door and hit the first saleswoman on the head and the second one in the sales area.

[2][6][7][8] After the arrest, Kulesh began to cooperate and confessed to the double murder in the hope of replacing the death penalty with a life sentence: "I understood that I could not get away.

Another peculiarity of the case was that during his interrogation, Kulesh was able to describe in detail his route to southern Lida in apparently his first visit to the area and after drinking two bottles of vodka and a liter of beer, but was unable to remember whether the victims resisted.

The fate of the 35–37 million rubles was also unclear—the common-law wife stated that after the double murder, Kulesh did not bring any more money home.