Ukraine recruits prisoners to bolster troop numbers
just outside of Ukraine’s Capital City a medium security penal colony which we were given permission to visit the hundreds of men serving here are part of a pool of potential new soldiers like 25-year-old renat talv who is Keen to enlist he’s serving a 10-year sentence for murdering his former boss at a construction site I do what they tell me to do he said I can shoot and dig trenches it doesn’t matter across Ukraine’s sprawling front lines soldiers are exhausted units depleted and despite a recruitment campaign few civilians are rushing to step in which is why last month lawmakers passed a bill to try and recruit thousands from prisons like this one around 100 inmates from this prison have already been released and sent to Eastern Ukraine where they’re receiving military training and dozens of others are waiting for their applications to be processed we can see uh of the picture prisoners before they get the green light there’s a brief court hearing where a judge tries to ensure they haven’t been pressured into signing up I asked some uh prisoners about uh this motivation some of these tell me that feel some responsibility of our country of our Ukrainian people earlier in the war Russia’s Vagner mercenary group made a big push to quickly enlist prisoners promising them a pardon if they survived 6 months of War several thousand of them didn’t and the Ukrainian inmates say they’re well aware of the risk that lies ahead are you concerned at all that you could be set to the front with with very little training I think everything will be okay he said but if my destiny is I’ll be killed then so it will be in Ukraine inmates who enlist will be required to fight until the war is over only then will they be granted parole Brier Stewart CBC news near Keef
With its soldiers on front lines fighting against Russia feeling exhausted, Ukraine is looking to its prisons to bolster its troops — a move that echoes Russia’s use of prisoners as part of the Wagner Group mercenary force last year.
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