Russia released a group of women from a prison in late May to join the fighting in Ukraine, according to two ex-detainees who remain in contact with them. This could mark a new stage in the recruitment of criminals into the Kremlin’s war effort.
Recruiters have picked up several female inmates from a prison in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, said the former inmates, who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation. It is unclear whether this is an isolated case, a pilot project or the start of a larger program.
There were about 30,000 women serving sentences in Russia at the start of the invasion.
Recruiters began visiting women’s prisons in the European part of Russia in the fall of 2023. By 2022, the Russian military had offered convicted men pardon and pay if they signed up to fight. Inmates had also signed, but until now they remained incarcerated without an official explanation, according to former and current inmates at four women’s prisons.
Tens of thousands of detainees enlisted, filling the ranks of the Russian army at a crucial moment in the war and helping it regain the military advantage over Ukraine. Thousands of them were killed in Ukraine. Some, who survived the fighting and were demobilized, have since committed serious crimes, including murder.
In addition to detainees, Russian recruiters target debtors, people accused of crimes and foreigners.
The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Prison Service have in the past left unanswered all requests for interviews on prison recruitment.
We do not know what roles the ex-detainees will assume at the front. Recruiters who visited their prison near St. Petersburg in 2023 offered positions as snipers, combat paramedics and radio operators at the front for a year. These are roles very different from the largely auxiliary functions undertaken by most women in the modern Russian military. About 40 of the 400 prisoners said yes, accepting pardons at the end of their enlistment and the equivalent of about C$2,750 per month, or 10 times the national minimum wage.
According to two women who attended recruitment at the prison in 2023, fellow inmates signed up despite the dangers described by recruiters.
According to the two women, the severity of the Russian prison system played a large part in the decision of some women to enlist. At the prison near St. Petersburg, speaking was forbidden all the time and had to work up to 12 hours a day in the prison sawmill, even in temperatures below -15 degrees Celsius, the women said.
Ukraine also recruits in prisons. After Russia derided the practice, the Ukrainian government authorized a similar program in May amid an increasingly acute troop shortage. According to Ukrainian authorities, thousands of convicts have asked to enlist.
