KHARKIV, Ukraine—Stuck in a crowded prison cell in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, 45-year-old Viktor faces a choice. He can stay where he is, serving out his sentence in the knowledge that a Russian bomb could hit the jail any day, or he can swap his cell for the dangers of the front lines, as a volunteer defending his country.
“Better to go fight with weapons, than sit here,” he tells the Daily Beast.
In a tactic borrowed from Vladimir Putin’s playbook, Ukraine has started releasing prisoners for service on the front lines. The first law of its kind in Ukraine made thousands of convicts eligible to join the war as a Russian counteroffensive intensifies. Prisoners who are joining the military see it as a way to do right by their family and their country after a life revolving around crime. For the Ukrainian military, the men serve as new recruits at a time when enlistments are low, a quid pro quo that exchanges freedom for manpower in what has become a war of attrition.
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Civilians rushed to sign up in the military when the war began in early 2022, many of whom had never fired a gun before. United in their determination to protect their homeland from Putin’s illegal invasion, they helped achieve a series of surprise breakthroughs on the front, defending Kharkiv and reclaiming 1,160 sq miles of land in a surprise counter-offensive in northeastern Ukraine. Solidarity and morale were high, but over time the number of fresh military recruits fell as war fatigue settled in. The future of Ukraine remains uncertain.
Some men in Ukraine are so against enlisting in the military that they are paying thousands of dollars to forge fake medical exemption slips as an excuse for not being able to serve. Others are illegally fleeing the country instead of risking their lives on the front. In hopes of finding more soldiers, Ukraine’s parliament passed a bill that allowed some prisoners to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Not all prisoners are eligible to serve on the front lines—those who are guilty of sexual violence, killing two or more people, or serious corruption must serve out their terms.
Only those with three years or less left on their sentence can apply for the exchange. Still, Ukraine has managed to recruit some 3,000 men from prisons across the country to the military, though some have no training to prepare them for active combat. Ukrainian Deputy Justice Minister Olena Vysotska estimates 27,000 inmates could potentially be eligible for the new program.
Better than prison
For some prisoners, like Viktor who is serving a sentence in Kharkiv for robbery, life on the front might be safer than remaining in prison. Viktor called the Daily Beast from his prison in Kharkiv and recalled the “chaos” of being trapped in the prison in the days following the invasion. “This plane dropped bombs right next to us. It was very scary. The guards, the whole prison was scared,” he said.
Kharkiv’s region is on the border with Russia, and many had little time to escape before Russian and Ukrainian soldiers were fighting on their streets. Guards opened prisons in Kharkiv up to the families of inmates because the one-floor building had no windows and thick cement walls, which were expected to be able to withstand the shockwaves of nearby attacks. Viktor’s wife and child were among the families that took refuge in the jail. “No one evacuates us. Everyone is in cells, so if it [missile] hits, well, it’s a mass grave. You can’t go anywhere,” he explained.
As the war continued and Ukrainian soldiers managed to push Russians out of Kharkiv, Viktor’s family and those of other prisoners left the prison, many moving to safer regions of the country, leaving behind the men serving behind bars. Since then, the war has ebbed and flowed in Kharkiv, and prisoners have grown accustomed to their building being a target point, but after Russia launched its counteroffensive in the region on May 10, the city has been bombarded with new attacks frequently.
The Daily Beast visited the prison in which Viktor is incarcerated earlier this summer, a minimum-security facility that he said was filled with “normal people. No scoundrels here.” But before we could speak with any prisoners, a guard told us to leave. “It’s too dangerous,” said the guard–although not because of the men inside the prison, but because of the threat of a Russian attack. “The men are not the problem,” said the guard before shutting the entrance door.
On the phone, Viktor stressed that he wants to do his part to secure Ukraine’s victory, and when he learned about the possibility of prisoners being allowed to join the military, said: “I was happy. I really want to go. Well, what’s the difference? Better to go fight with weapons than sit here.”
There are other prisoners serving alongside Viktor who want to join the war, he noted. Those men, too, are fueled by their love for Ukraine more than their desire for freedom. Still, they know that the war is at a perilous moment, with Russia continuing to make ground in the Donbas, despite Ukraine’s surprise invasion of the Kursk region of western Russia.
There is still heavy fighting occurring in the Kharkiv region, and there is a possibility that the city, Ukraine’s second largest, could see fighting on its streets again. Ukrainian soldiers that The Daily Beast spoke with said that dozens of their soldiers are being wounded and injured and that some are refusing military orders to save lives. Although Viktor has no military training and has never shot a gun before, he planned to join a military academy where he will learn how to become a professional soldier who can protect his country. When asked if he is prepared to die for Ukraine, Viktor said, “If God wills.”
Following Russia’s example
Ukraine’s decision to enlist prisoners as frontline soldiers is controversial, but differs markedly from Russia’s long-running program to empty jails and send convicts en masse to the front lines of Eastern Ukraine. Many convicts were sent to Wagner, which was arguably Russia’s most brutal mercenary group before the death of its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Russia stands accused of using prisoners as raw material for their war machine, using them as “meat waves,” groups of men ordered to advance toward the enemy, with no regard for their lives.
Among Russias convict soldiers are some of the country’s most brutal criminals—murderers, pedophiles, and rapists. In May, Meduza, an independent Russian media outlet, reported that Russian authorities had “repeatedly given a state award to a convicted pedophile who was recruited into the army directly from prison,” according to their report.
The man, Ilya Belosotsky, is a former children’s TV show director who was in prison for sexually assaulting a minor in 2022 and was awarded a medal “for saving lives” by joining the army. Recently a serial killer, Yury Gritsenko, a 62-year-old schizophrenic serving a 22-years prison term for the murder of four women, was also released to fight in the war. Ukraine has vowed that its prisoner soldiers will be different from Russia’s, and the program is also intended to help combat the country’s overpopulated prisons and make room for the new ones who are being charged with collaborating with the enemy.
‘Something useful’
Kyiv has stated that its soldiers are not being used to create new and brutal military units like those in Russia. As Ukraine continues to fight for victory, integrating prisoners can be seen as a form of desperation and a symbol of hope. Kyiv had never intended to deem convicted felons heroes, but the prisoners see the bill as a chance for redemption for their crimes.
In a separate prison from Viktor’s in Kharkiv, a man named Sigen, who is serving time for assault, said that he would rather be free and serving in the military than spend additional time in jail. Speaking by phone from prison, Sigen explained that he was serving his fifth term in jail, and he’d had enough of life behind bars. Whenever there are attacks in Kharkiv, Sigen said that prisoners are not taken anywhere for safety; they are left to the mercy of chance. More than anything, Sigen wants to get out and says that even in the most brutal spots of the war, he will be free.
In his prison, Sigen estimated that around 20 to 25 percent of the incarcerated men want to join the military and that no one is training them for war, but he still wants to go. Though Sigen acknowledged that he might die and said that nobody on the front would care, he added, “I think even under bombs, freedom is better than being in prison. Well, what could be more valuable than freedom? Some say they feel at home in prison, but I don’t know. I can’t get used to my fifth conviction. I always want freedom.”
Noting that he could die in prison too, Sigen said, “At least there, I might do something useful in my life. Maybe with one act, I’ll make up for all the bad things I did, and they will remember me. You need to do something good sometimes. So that mom would be proud, and not always stealing and drinking.”
