- Ukraine is recruiting prisoners to join the fight against Russia, with more than 4,000 prisoners applying so far.
- The government offered prisoners a deal in which their sentences would be waived if they served in the military without taking leave until the end of the war, after which they would be eligible for parole.
- Certain crimes, such as multiple murders, sex crimes and treason, disqualify Ukrainian prisoners from serving their sentences.
To fill its dwindling ranks of infantrymen, Ukraine has turned to recruiting prisoners to join the fight against Russia, with more than 4,000 people applying so far.
Under an agreement offered to prisoners by the government, if prisoners agreed to serve in the military without taking leave until the end of the war, the remainder of their sentences would be cleared – regardless of the length of their sentences.
At that time, they will be eligible for parole.
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“My mother is hysterical… I have been here for five years and I have one more year to go before I go to war,” one registrant, Mykola Rybalka, told Reuters in the prison yard. area.
On May 30, 2024, in the Kiev region of Ukraine, prisoners walked in the prison yard. . (Reuters/Thomas Peter)
According to the Ministry of Justice, Rybalka, who said he was in prison for theft, was one of 129 inmates out of 700 inmates at the prison who applied to join the military.
“You know, five years behind these walls leaves its mark. You see a lot, you learn a lot. You’re not afraid of anything anymore,” he said.
Ukraine, with a population of about 38 million compared with Russia’s 144 million, has struggled to recruit enough soldiers, especially to fight on the front lines, where they bear the brunt of enemy attacks and suffer heavy losses.
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Its army, outnumbered and exhausted, recently signed a new law aimed at mobilizing hundreds of thousands of troops – although it could take months for the massive new troops to be ready.
“There is competition among military commanders to hire (prisoners) because of the lack of manpower, so they really want to have access to these people,” Justice Minister Denis Maliuska told reporters visiting the prison on Thursday.
Recruiters from Ukraine’s 3rd and 5th Commando Brigades who attended the press conference agreed that prisoners are generally highly motivated.
A 5th Brigade representative who identified himself as Vladislav told Reuters his brigade had recruited about 90 people from prisons and was in the process of recruiting others.
He said those who join his brigade will be put into separate, prisoner-only units and commanders will keep a close eye on them.
Vladislav added, however, that there would be little room for escape given the potential Russian firepower for a disorderly withdrawal.
Oleh Petrenko, a representative of the 3rd Brigade, said his brigade would not treat prisoners differently than others.
“We don’t see any difference between normally mobilized (men) and prisoners.”
Thousands of people applied
In the early days of total war, the Russian private mercenary organization Wagner recruited tens of thousands of Russian prisoners of war to fight in Ukraine, offering them full amnesty if they survived six months on the front lines.
Since then, the Russian Ministry of Defense has continued to recruit prisoners from prisons to join its Storm-Z formation.
In Ukraine, prisoners convicted of certain crimes are barred from serving their sentences. These crimes include the murder of two or more people, manslaughter due to drink driving, sexual offences, treason and corruption.
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The Ministry of Justice said 4,564 prisoners have applied to join the military so far. They need to pass a medical exam and get a court to approve their application – more than 1,700 have already been approved.
The minister has previously said he expected a total of 10,000 to 20,000 prisoners to sign up.
Maliuska said he expects most applicants to be on board within about two months. Reuters was invited to a local court to find out how a judge approved the application of a man serving time for armed robbery.
He appeared in court via video link from prison, and the entire process lasted about 10 minutes.
Judge Dmytro Tkachenko said the prison ensured that only applicants who met the legal criteria were sent, and that he and two other judges had been hearing 10 to 20 such cases a day over the past week.
Two out of about 100 applications were rejected, both because the applicants changed their minds.
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Under the new law, 782 prisoners have been released and handed over to the armed forces.
“They (will) be the center of media attention and if there’s a deserter or a crime, it would be bad PR for us,” Maliuska said.
Vitaliy Yatsenko, 23, who is serving half of a seven-year prison sentence for drug trafficking, said he had hoped to sign up at the beginning of the Russian invasion but had not been allowed to do so.
Currently, he has submitted an application to join the army.
“First and foremost, I want to help my country. I want society to understand that people are capable of recovery.”
