Ukraine is expanding its military recruiting to cope with battlefield shortages more than two years into fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion.

DNIPROPETROVSK REGION, Ukraine (AP) — At a rural penal colony in southeast Ukraine, several convicts stand assembled under barbed wire to hear an army recruiter offer them a shot at parole. In return, they must join the grueling fight against Russia.

“You can put an end to this and start a new life,” said the recruiter, a member of a volunteer assault battalion. “The main thing is your will, because you are going to defend the motherland. You won’t succeed at 50%, you have to give 100% of yourself, even 150%.”

Ukraine is expanding the draft to cope with acute battlefield shortages more than two years into fighting against Russia’s full-scale invasion. And its recruiting efforts have turned, for the first time, to the country’s prison population.

  • peopleproblemsEnglish
    18•1 month ago

    The murderer thing makes me go “ehhhhh” but otherwise I can see how this could be a beneficial move. You fight for your home, you get out of jail early. Yes it carries risk, but I would imagine plenty of inmates have family directly impacted by the invasion and have been asking to get sent into the fight.

    Better dead fighting for your home than locked up and becoming a Russian prisoner potentially.