The Russian military has been recruiting women from prisons to join assault teams for the war against Ukraine, according to a new report.
The lawyer of one inmate at a penal colony in the Ivanovo region told iStories that women with an education in the medical field are recruited to serve as medical personnel on the battlefield. “The rest are sent to assault units,” the lawyer was quoted as saying.
The practice of recruiting female prisoners had been reported as early as last spring, though up until recently, they were primarily recruited to serve as medics, drone operators, or snipers. Assault units are sent on brazen missions to storm Ukrainian positions, incurring heavy losses in the process.
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One unnamed friend of an inmate at the same penal colony in Ivanovo told iStories many of the women were signing up for the war in a desperate bid to “get home sooner” with some money in their pockets.
Women from a penal colony in the Leningrad region were also offered a chance to join assault teams last fall, and several women reportedly took up the offer but have yet to be sent to the frontline.
“I said: ‘Do you understand that you’ll be under fire?! You’ll just be cannon fodder. Even the men don’t survive.’ But they all want to go home,” one friend recalled telling some of the inmates.
The Española battalion, which is part of a private military company controlled by the Russian Defense Ministry, boasted in November of giving women the “opportunity” to join assault units and achieve “self-realization” by doing so.
While defense officials last fall had been offering female inmates a pardon in exchange for their stint on the battlefield, now the only offer is conditional release.
