A graduate of Saint Petersburg's combined arms school, he served in North Caucasus and in Crimea prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[1][2] During the war in Ukraine, Klimenko's unit was accused of torturing Russian soldiers who refused to fight.

[3] Russian sources said that he had established a concentration camp at an abandoned mine outside Donetsk.

[1] Klimenko was killed in Ukraine on 6 November 2024, at the age of 47, hit by a Kamikaze drone.

[5][6] He was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation and the Donetsk People's Republic posthumously.