Redeem guilt. How prisoners in Ukraine get to the Armed Forces and how many of them

For the most part, this was done by the Wagner PEC Yevgeny Prigogine, but the initiative was taken by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. British intelligence in the report for May 11 reported that since the beginning of the year, the Russian Ministry of Defense only in April gained up to 10 thousand convicts. The prisoners were key to mercenaries, but the group lost access to penitentiary institutions in February 2023.

Olga Romanova, the head of the Rus Sydachna Foundation, said that thanks to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin, even in women's colonies, they want to conquer. "The situation in prisons has consciously deteriorated. It was a conscious policy and it continues. Women are no exception. Almost always they feel much worse in prison than men," Romanova explained in March Freedom. The Russian military leadership gathered as gun meat any prison contingent, did not pay attention to the article.

The UN drew attention to the problem in March 2023. "We are deeply concerned about visiting the members of the so -called" Wagner group "of correctional institutions in different regions of Russia, the pardon on criminal sentences of prisoners who joined the PEC and agreed to participate in the war in Ukraine, as well as the monthly payments to their relatives ", - said human rights activists who work for the organization.

According to them, Wagner PECs recruited Russian and foreign citizens who serve sentences in correctional institutions, using threats or intimidation. In March, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law that amends the Criminal Code of Ukraine on the abolition of a preventive measure for the armed forces of martial law. The document defines the list of persons who can be issued from prisons for service during general mobilization.

Article 616 of the Criminal Code states that the right, unlike preventive measures in wartime, are suspected of all crimes except severe articles-115, 146-147, 152-156, 255, 255 (1), 257, 258-262, 30 321 , 330, 335-337, 401-414, 426-433, 436 and 437-442. These include murder, theft of people, violence, corruption of minors, organized crime, robbery and state council. Territorial staff (former military enlistments) are responsible for mobilizing prisoners in Ukraine.

After the call from mobilization, the Ukrainian convicted shall arrive at the CCC at the place of registration no later than 48 hours. In response to a request of focus, the Ministry of Justice reported that in 2022, the Decree of the President of Ukraine had mistaken 363 persons who expressed a desire to participate in the protection of Ukraine from the military aggression of Russia.

The information about the units of the Armed Forces in which the service of mistaken prisoners is served is not known to officials. "The prisoners held in the institutions of the State Criminal Enforcement Service of Ukraine were not involved in the work to ensure defense measures and eliminate the consequences of hostilities," the Ministry of Justice was concluded.

The procedure for canceling a preventive measure in prisoners for military service on conscription during the mobilization is determined by the rules of the Criminal Code, the department said. The Ministry of Justice has not yet led to mobilized prisoners for mobilized prisoners.

Focus requested the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to clarify the details of the mobilization of prisoners and their participation in hostilities, but did not receive the answers at the time of publishing the material. We will publish the answer as soon as we get it.

The director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group Yevhen Zakharov in communication with Focus notes that the Department of Criminal Sentences of the Ministry of Justice sent letters to all heads of penitentiary institutions to interview convicts on their combat experience. "It was necessary to know where they were fighting. The same was asked to do the detention centers. I know that they took (in the army - ed. ) Condemned military from the Tornado battalion.

Those who committed single non -serious crimes, ATO veterans ", - comments the human rights activist. In the construction of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, on May 14, it was about brought Russian prisoners to field camps in temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories. According to the military, about 200 ZEKs were brought to one of the camps in the horn of the Luhansk region - they will arrange a four -week course of general military training.

By the end of May, the replenishment is being prepared - another 250 convicts will come. And in the area of ​​the Lugansk region of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, about 800 prisons are prepared. In the area of ​​Novopetrovka of Zaporizhzhya region, about 400 prisoners, published by Wagner PEC "were delivered to the landfill. Another 400 people from prison will come there soon.

Focus-responders interviewed by lawyers state that no comparison with the set of ZECs at the Wagner PEC Yevgeny Prigogine and the Armed Forces cannot be. "The Russian company has been gaining serious criminals in mass. And we were taken with combat experience and who did not commit serious crimes," Zakharov notes. With the number of prisoners released by the Ministry of Justice, most at the front showed themselves well.

Many have received orders, did feats, but there are also dead, says the head of the Alliance of Unity of Ukraine, human rights activist Oleg Cvili. "For more than a year, there was a complete silence - the issue of releasing those who went to war from prisons did not solve. One of the reasons was a negative example of Wagner PEC, which was typed all in a row. Ukraine did not want to look like Russia," the human rights activist says.

According to mosquis, it is possible to wait in the second wave of pardon in the near future to replenish the Armed Forces. "For two weeks, as in place of imprisonment, an unspoken team is to be marked by the moods of prisoners, the number of those who want to fight. Believe me, their number has not fallen. There are so many of them that they write statements and do not take the administration," he explains. In case of a positive answer, each convicted will be selected.

The State Criminal Enforcement Service of Ukraine will arrange the first stage, and then can reach the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense and the Commission under the President of Ukraine on pardon, explains the expert. In Ukraine, pardon is not the only tool to engage in prisoners in the army. Those who want to go to the front can use the mechanism of parole (UDV). "The problem is that the prosecutor's office is against and constantly cut such petitions.

And the courts mostly always agree with the prosecutors. There was a client from a new Kakhovka - he had a house with a house, died during the war. He was extremely motivated and he remained a year by the end of the term" We filed on the UDV, agreed on the Unit in the Armed Forces, but prosecutors were against it, "says Tsvili. Full confusion with prisons was in the first days of a full -scale invasion # 91 in the Chernihiv region.

Former law enforcement officers were served there, who could not be kept in ordinary colonies. "This colony was close to the front line. And during the offensive of the Russians, convicted security officers realized that they would be killed by the invaders. The prisoners demanded the power of release, the situation was acute. The leadership of the colony simply opened them with a gate, otherwise there would be a rebellion. Many went to fight and so far.

The Russians were not kicked out of the north, they were in the Ukrainian army. The part was pardoned and others were returned to the colony fraudulently - they suggested to sign documents and closed, " - explains the specialist. During the fighting, according to his calculations, ten colonies were transported from south and east to the west of Ukraine.

From the occupied areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions They did not have time to transport some of the institutions and the prison management went to the side of the invaders. Another example of the mold cited with prisoners in the occupation in Kherson region - 2500 were taken to Russia, and up to 500 people were transported deep into Ukraine after the release of Kherson. The case of theft The Kherson region was described by the American newspaper The New York Times.

According to Alexander Fedorenko's 47-year-old prisoner, who served his sentence in Kherson for theft, the Russians met him shouts, beating, humiliations. accused of violating migration legislation. Another prisoner Andrey Stukalin complained about the Ukrainian authorities for leaving them in prison. "We had bitterness in our soul because Ukraine, our Motherland, left us.

We wanted us to open the cameras of the cameras so we could protect ourselves so that we could fight for our lives," Stukalin said. And during the Armed Forces counter -offensive in the south, the Russians transferred prisoners from four Kherson prisons to annexed Crimea. Four prisoners told the New York Times about beating by the guards in masks, some faint.