Freedom for prisoners if they fight in Ukraine

Hundreds of prisoners - from murderers to drug smugglers - have reportedly been offered the offer, and many are taking the deadly risk.

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Funeral of 58 unidentified soldiers of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, Photo: Reuters
Funeral of 58 unidentified soldiers of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, Photo: Reuters
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

Convicts in overcrowded Russian prisons are promised freedom and a good salary. Then there is panic, telephone conversations between relatives and prisoners weighing the offer. Prisoners disappear and leave their loved ones to sift through reports of wounded arriving at hospitals.

CNN writes that such scenes are taking place in prison communities across Russia. As the regular army is overstretched after the nearly six-month invasion of Ukraine, evidence is mounting that the Kremlin is recruiting Russian prisoners for the war.

During the month-long investigation, CNN spoke with prisoners caught up in the latest Russian recruitment strategy, along with relatives and friends. Activists believe that hundreds of prisoners in dozens of prisons across Russia are involved - from murderers to drug smugglers. According to CNN, some were taken from the prison where former US Marine Paul Whelan is imprisoned. His brother David said in a statement in July that he had heard that ten volunteers had left IK17 prison in Mordovia and gone to the Ukrainian front.

Dozens of messages between relatives, seen by CNN, detail the tempting rewards offered for going to the Ukrainian front, where the risk of death is high. According to the latest Western estimates, around 75 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the beginning of the invasion, a claim the Kremlin denies.

The inmate, who was sentenced to years in prison for drug-related offenses, spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity, using a smuggled smartphone, to describe the conditions on offer.

"They will accept murderers, but not rapists, pedophiles, extremists or terrorists. Prisoners are offered amnesty or pardon for six months. Some talk about 100.000 rubles (about 1.600 euros) a month or 200.000. All offers are different." He said the offer was made when an unidentified man, believed to be a private military contractor, came to the prison in the first half of July and that those who accept go to two weeks of training in the Rostov region of southern Russia. He said about himself that he served in the army for two years, but that the recruiters do not seem to insist on military experience.

"They will accept murderers, but not rapists, pedophiles, extremists or terrorists. Prisoners are offered amnesty or pardon in six months. Some talk about 100.000 rubles (about 1.600 euros) a month or 200.000

"In my case, if it's real, then I'm all for it," said the prisoner. "It could make a big difference to my situation: incarcerated for almost a decade, or out in six months if you're lucky. But only if you're lucky. I just want to go home to the kids as soon as possible. If this option is possible, why not?" The inmate said 50 inmates had already been selected for recruitment and quarantined at the prison, but he heard 400 had applied. Human rights activists, who work in Russia's prison system, said they had been inundated with reports of members since early July. families from all over Russia, worried about the fate of their loved ones who are in prison.

Remnants of Russian missiles collected in Kharkiv
Remnants of Russian missiles collected in Kharkivphoto: Reuters

"In the last three weeks (of July), there was a big wave of this project to recruit thousands of Russian prisoners and send them to war," said Vladimir Osechkin, head of the group gulagu.net, which fights for the rights of prisoners.

Osechkin said that some prisoners were offered to pay their families five million rubles (about 80.000 euros) in case they were killed on the front, but that all the monetary rewards may never be paid. "There are no guarantees, no real contract. It's illegal," he said. He added that some prisoners and their family members want the recruitment process to continue.

He assumes that the prisoners are effectively being used as decoys, to draw fire from Ukrainian positions and allow regular Russian soldiers to fire back accurately. "They go first, and when the Ukrainian army sees them, they launch an attack. Then the Russian soldiers see where the Ukrainians are and bomb that place."

CNN reports that it has not received a comment from the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Federal Correctional Service regarding allegations that prisoners are being recruited to fight in Ukraine.

That process has only just begun, but the first reports have emerged among family members that the injured prisoners have been admitted to a hospital in the separatist Luhansk region.

CNN had access to correspondence between family members of the prisoners, which had apparently already been sent to the front. A Russian woman described in detail how she contacted her husband who was injured and is in a hospital in Lugansk. She said that only three prisoners from her husband's unit were still alive. CNN reports that it knows the identity of the wounded prisoner, but could not confirm his hospitalization, as separatist medical facilities are shrouded in secrecy.

Action by the military forces of the Luhansk People's Republic
Action by the military forces of the Luhansk People's Republicphoto: Beta / AP

The report states that other messages between family members show the desperation of the prisoners, caught up in the Russian justice system where "99 percent of trials end in conviction, and corruption has a major impact on the overburdened penal system."

Russian President Vladimir Putin initially said no recruits had been deployed to the battlefield, before his defense ministry admitted it had withdrawn some from the battlefield after being sent there by mistake. The Kremlin has said there will be no general mobilization in Russia, perhaps out of fear that the policy would prove unpopular, especially if the losses do not lead to significant change on the battlefield.

Wagner steps out of the shadows

Recruiting in the prison, say activists and prisoners, is under the auspices of the private military organization Wagner, which is not subject to the Russian army's ban on the employment of convicts. The prisoners did not share any copies of their contracts with relatives or activists, so the precise terms or the employer are unknown.

Wagner was founded in 2014 to support pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. It is believed to be financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a powerful businessman with close ties to Putin. Prigozhin, who has been sanctioned by the West, denies being connected to the group.

Wagner is active all over the world. He played a prominent role fighting with the Russian army on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and was also seen in several African countries, where Russia has strategic and economic interests. He was the target of accusations of war crimes and human rights violations.

The British "Guardian" announced on Sunday that the role of that mercenary group, which officially does not exist, is increasingly public and that they openly recruit in Russia, stating that billboards appeared in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg with the messages: "Homeland, honor, blood, courage, WAGNER."

The second, which according to locals first appeared in the suburbs of Russia's fourth-largest city at the beginning of July, shows three men in military uniform next to the words "Vagner2022.org".

Military analysts say Russia's dependence on groups like Wagner shows the extent to which the regular military is struggling to achieve its goals in Ukraine

The Guardian writes that the billboards, which can be seen in several Russian cities, are part of Wagner's efforts to recruit fighters to join his ranks in Ukraine.

The British intelligence service announced at the end of March that about a thousand of Wagner's mercenaries had gone to Ukraine. Wagner is believed to have played a central role in the capture of Popasna in May and Lisichansk in June, two strategically important towns destroyed by Russian forces during the conquest of Luhansk Oblast.

The Guardian writes that the first confirmation of Wagner in state news occurred in May, when a reporter alluded to the group on a national broadcast, saying the military had "its own orchestra" in Ukraine.

Among supporters and members, Wagner is often referred to as "the orchestra", a reference to the German composer Richard Wagner. The group's alleged founder, Dmitry Utkin, is linked to the ultra-right and is believed to have named it after Hitler's favorite composer.

Ukrainian soldier at the front in Kharkiv region
Ukrainian soldier at the front in Kharkiv regionphoto: Reuters

Military analysts argue that Russia's dependence on groups like Wagner shows the extent to which the regular army, which, according to the Guardian, has lost a third of its combat strength, is struggling to achieve its goals in Ukraine.

Investigative portal iStories reported that Wagner is resorting to recruiting prisoners and offering high wages and potential amnesty for six months of service.

"Wagner is lowering recruitment standards and hiring convicts and blacklisted individuals, which may affect Russia's military effectiveness," the British Ministry of Defense said at an intelligence briefing last week, The Guardian reported.

"The least protected part of the population"

Oksana, the half-sister of a Russian prisoner who was offered a deployment to the battlefield, said his mother initially wanted to be paid for his deployment, but since he disappeared from their messaging apps, she is beside herself with worry, reports CNN.

"We know he was in the Rostov region," Oksana said, adding that he claimed he was in another prison's factory. "He called her on a new WhatsApp number on July 10 and asked her to send a copy of her passport to receive his salary," she said. That meant he was less likely to have been in prison because earnings from prison labor are usually paid into an inmate's account, she told CNN.

"I am in contact with many relatives and they all have the same scenario: Send your passport information. No contact," she said. "They are the least protected part of the population. Putin said that the recruits would not be sent, but they are. With convicts, it will be very difficult to find out that they have been sent." CNN writes that Oksana's name has been changed for security reasons.

At the end of July, the mother received a message from another new number, in which her son informed her that he was alive and well and that everything was fine, but did not give details about his whereabouts. There's still a little time left, but it's going fast," he wrote. "When I can, I'll call you."

The mother was later called by a person who introduced herself as the "cashier", who promised to bring her son's salary in cash a week later.

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