Prison soldiers no longer receive full amnesty. Instead, ex-prisoners get a kind of parole, says the BBC.
Prison soldiers recruited from Russian prisons will no longer be released after six months of front-line service, he says British broadcasting company BBC.
Soldiers will now have to fight as long as the war continues, says the BBC. The only ways for prisoner soldiers to be released from military service are to receive an honor from the Russian state, lose health, reach the maximum age of a soldier, or end the war.
The BBC has obtained its information from the soldiers’ mutual discussion forums and by interviewing the soldiers and their families.
In contrast to the past, prisoner soldiers also do not receive a full amnesty. Instead, ex-prisoners get a kind of parole, says the BBC. It means that if they are found guilty of a new crime, their previous convictions will also be taken into account in the punishment.
The Russian military has established so-called Storm V detachments, which consist of these men. Troops fight on the front lines, but many are trained for only ten days or less.
According to those interviewed, the conditions in the Storm V wards are better than in the previous prison wards. The pay is running and prisoners get the same benefits as other soldiers.
In one discussion group, one soldier estimates that the chance of surviving is 25 percent.
– I have been in the strike force for five months. Of our team of about a hundred people, only 38 are alive, he wrote according to the BBC.
Troops were quickly obtained from the prisons
Russian prisoners began to be recruited to the front en masse in the summer of 2022. At that time, the operations were led by the director of the mercenary company Wagner, who died in August Yevgeny Prigozhin. Before his death, Prigozhin said that almost 50,000 prisoners would have been hired under his leadership.
It was possible to get fighters from prisons quickly. In ‘s story, it was estimated about a year ago that prisoners have practically been sent to the front to die.
– They have been used as frontline troops. Russian regular troops and landing forces have come after them to make breakthroughs, docent of military sciences Ilmari Käihkö estimated at the time.
Russia took the recruitment of prisoners to the front into its own hands as early as February 2023.