The beginning of the 2013–14 season was difficult for Yakimenko: having dropped down to the No.17 spot, he no longer benefited from the Top-16 exemption and had to go through the qualifications phase in each World Cup competition. He bounced back in April with a bronze medal in Athens, followed by two bronzes in Chicago and Warsaw. In early June he was affected by the death of David Tyshler, one of Russia's greatest saberers and his personal supervisor at university. A few days later at the European Championships in Strasbourg, he defeated teammates Kamil Ibragimov and Veniamin Reshetnikov respectively in the semi-finals and in the final, to claim his fifth European individual title and his eleventh European medal. In the team event, Russia defeated Ukraine, then Belarus to meet Italy in the final. After a tight match Italy eventually prevailed 45–44 and Russia were relegated to a silver medal. At the World Championships in Kazan, Yakimenko edged out Korea's Won Woo-young in the quarter-finals, but ceded to the latter teammate's Gu Bon-gil in the semi-finals. He came away with a bronze medal, his second individual World podium only. He declared himself very pleased with this result and dedicated his medal to his fiancée. The team event however fell short of expectations: top-seed Russia were overcome in the semi-finals by Germany, who eventually won the gold medal. Very upset with this defeat, Russia failed to regroup for the bronze medal match and lost 45–43 against Hungary, coming home with no medal.