Should fight to the end: Russia has stopped freeing from the service of recruited prisoners

According to the newspaper, now expected Russians no longer receive a pardon, face harsh conditions, and instead of returning home earlier, they must fight by the end of the war. "If you sign up now, be prepared to die. You could serve six months before. But now you have to reach the end of the war," said a man named Sergey, a fighter They are fighting in Ukraine.

After the death of the head of the Wagner PEC, Yevgeny Prigogine, Wagner PEC has gone back, and now the conditions for the prisoners have become harsh. One woman from the Trans -Baikal Territory of the Far East of Russia, who wished to stay unknown, told the BBC that her husband was recruited into one of the detachments "Storm V" in the fall of 2023. "This February would be 15 years since the sentence. He had four more. The prison conditions were normal.

He could continue to serve his sentence, but it was the only way to quickly return him home," she said. According to her, his contract from the Ministry of Defense of Russia was concluded for a year, not for six months, as in previous prisoners. And when the man is over, he will not receive a pardon and will not be able to go home immediately, as the contract will "continue".

Publications on social networks of other Russians whose relatives serve in the Storm V units indicate that they will also have to remain on the forefront until the completion of what Moscow calls their "special military operation". The prisoners are warned when they are signed, and this corresponds to Vladimir Putin's decree from September 2022, which, in fact, means that after the expiration of the contract, it cannot actually be terminated and renewed.

Now the only way to get a full release is to get a state award, to become incapacitated, to reach the age of age, or to live before the war. Instead of pardon, former prisoners now receive parole after life in the army. This means that if they are found guilty of committing a new crime, their sentence will also reflect their previous convictions. "Your chances of surviving are about 25%. I was a five -month -old assault worker.

Only 38 is alive from our platoon, which has about 100 people," - said one of the Russian prisoners. Many Storm V military personnel train at the landfill only 10 days before they are sent to the front line. There are several dozen cases where the convicts were in front of only three to five days of study. One of the men says that since 2014 he has been in prison several times for grievous bodily harm and theft.

In October, he signed a contract with the Defense Ministry and went to the front from a strict regime. He said that Storm V soldiers were often sent to "meaningless storms", of which only a few people return. According to him, if they refuse to go, they are thrown into the pit in the ground and do not give food. "Good luck will not be enough. I already know that I will not have time," he says about his chance to survive on the front line.