Russia has reportedly recruited more than 100,000 convicts from penal colonies to fight in the Ukraine war since February 2022, according to a startling revelation.
Prisoners were first recruited to join the fight in Ukraine last summer by the now-deceased Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The recruitment effort has led to a notable decrease in Russia’s prison population, from 420,000 before the war to around 266,000. It’s been reported that inadequately trained convicts are being sent to the front lines. These inmates are given the option of amnesty or a pardon within six months, and some are even promised financial incentives. Nevertheless, the battlefield conditions are tough, and the likelihood of death is significant.
The recruitment process is not limited to those with military experience. In fact, the recruiters do not seem to insist on military experience. This has led to a situation where convicts with varying backgrounds, from murderers to drug offenders, are being sent to fight. The only categories of convicts that are reportedly excluded from this recruitment drive are rapists, pedophiles, extremists, or terrorists.
The use of convicts in the war has raised serious ethical and humanitarian concerns. Critics argue that the convicts are being exploited and used as cannon fodder in a war that has already claimed numerous lives. The convicts, many of whom are desperate for freedom, are being lured into a deadly gamble.
The recruitment of convicts is seen as a desperate measure by Russia to compensate for its acute personnel shortages on the battlefield in Ukraine. The war, which has been going on for nearly six months, has stretched Russia’s regular army thin. Russia has been suffering heavy casualties in Ukraine, estimated by the West to be about 300,000.
To combat manpower shortages in Ukraine, Russia has sent in prisoners, called up military reservists, and recruited ethnic minorities to fight.
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– Russia has recruited over 100,000 prisoners for its ‘human wave’ assaults against Ukraine since the war began, reports say