In Ukraine, the parliament started on Wednesday to discuss a bill that would allow prisoners to be recruited into the army.
In Ukraine, 14 MPs submitted a bill to the country’s parliament on Wednesday, which would allow the recruitment of prisoners to the war front. An American newspaper tells about it Politico and Ukrainian Ukrainian Pravda.
According to Ukrainska Pravda, the president is among others behind the legal initiative to Volodymyr Zelensky Chairman of the People’s Servant Party I’m a Shuliak.
According to Politico, Ukraine’s Minister of Justice Denys Maljuska said last weekthat he doesn’t think it’s wrong to “recruit people who know how to kill, if they can help eliminate the Russian invaders.”
Ukrainian law currently does not allow soldiers to be recruited from prisons. Despite this, at the beginning of the war of aggression started by Russia, Ukraine pardoned more than 300 prisoners who wanted to join the army.
– I would say that this was somewhat of a success. Some of the prisoners have become heroes with medals. Some of it was found in the bookcase for some reason, but there wasn’t much trouble, Maljuska said, according to Politico.
Only prisoners who are not a security threat
According to Maljuska, the bill has not received much opposition.
According to Politico, Ukraine’s parliament must now decide on the rules to control the prisoners. It is also unclear whether the sentences of those who served in the army would be reduced.
Maljuska says that not all commanders want people with criminal convictions in their units, and thus the prisoners would probably form their own departments. Only prisoners who have served most of their sentences and are not seen as a security threat would be accepted as soldiers.
– The army has asked us to exclude those who have violated military discipline and committed crimes while serving in the army from the possible motion application. The army also does not want those who have committed crimes against the state, says Maljuska, according to Politico.
Russia has been recruiting soldiers from prisons for over two years. In particular, the leader of the mercenary army Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin recruited many prisoners into his ranks. After Prigozhin’s death, the Russian Ministry of Defense established the Storm-V and Storm-Z battalions made up of prisoners.
Ukraine aims to mobilize up to 500,000 soldiers. The matter is politically very sensitive, and the first bill on the subject failed in parliament.