After the destruction of a large number of Russian prisoners released to participate in the “meat assaults” of Soledar and Bakhmut, the occupiers began to devastate the correctional colonies located in the part of Donbass temporarily controlled by them. Only now the prisoners are going to their death not under the control of the Wagner group, but as separate detachments under the supervision of Russian officers.

According to Channel 24 sources in the Ukrainian special services , feeling an incredible need for a large amount of “cannon fodder”, the Russian military-political command decided to forcibly send prisoners from colonies from the temporarily occupied parts of Donbass and Luhansk region to the front.

Forced mobilization of prisoners in the so-called “DNR” and “LNR” began in January-February 2023 and continues to this day. It is still unknown how many prisoners the invaders want to dispose of at the front, however, according to some reports, even from women's colonies they will be taken to the combat zone.

Will die as volunteers

• It is clear that no one formalizes the release of people from behind bars. It's just that armed Russian soldiers come to this or that prison, recruit people on a random basis, after which they put them on buses and take them to the front. There is no preparation and coordination of groups, which include those released from behind bars, as such.
• They explain to the prisoners themselves that their “homeland is calling”, they have no options to refuse, and those who resist are brutally tortured. In some places – in front of other prisoners, to discourage them from the desire to rebel.
• Like Russian prisoners, the “residents” of the colonies in the occupied Donbass are even promised to be provided with everything necessary, to serve under a contract with an appropriate salary, and also to be rehabilitated after 6 months of participating in hostilities. Of course, the prisoners will never see any freedom in this. Since the intentions of the occupiers are only one thing – to make the most of them in the role of assault squads, which means inevitable death. So no one will receive a monetary reward for the war on the side of Russia.
• If a prisoner dies and his body is sent home, relatives are simply told that he volunteered for the front. Accordingly, they cannot count on compensation from Putin.

The occupiers make the militants of the quasi-republics the commanders of the assault detachments, most of whom were imprisoned in 2014-2015 and were “convicted” by their own people for committing various crimes. Such terrorists are appointed to command positions as they already have combat experience, but they are not given any additional preferences.

In addition, the invaders are driving to the front and many people who were deprived of their liberty because of the support of Ukraine. Also among those forcibly sent to the front lines are many entrepreneurs who were kidnapped by militants in 2014-2015 to extort money. In those days, representatives of criminal pro-Russian groups often shot local residents who were unable to collect the necessary amounts for their ransom, or gave them to local “investigators” to fulfill the norms for detaining “SBU saboteurs.” So the victims ended up in correctional colonies.

Take away even with open forms of tuberculosis

Of course, the Russian officers who recruit prisoners to send them to the war zone don't care at all about the ability of suicide bombers to carry weapons. For example, from the 13th colony in Alchevsk, where tuberculosis patients are serving their sentences, even people with an open form of it are taken to the front. So soon, if such people are lucky enough to survive the battles, they will die from it.

As of mid-March 2023, according to the Ukrainian special services, most of the dead prisoners are those who were released from the colonies of the Luhansk region – correctional institutions in Bryanka, Perevalsk, Khrustalny, Sukhodolsk and Slavyanoserbsk. There are no statistics of losses among prisoners from Donbass, because they are not even counted. Therefore, it is impossible to say with confidence that the occupiers threw only prisoners from the “LPR” into the hottest sectors of the front.

It is clear that the same tactics used by the criminals from the Wagner group are being used against the convicts at the front line: they are kept under strict surveillance away from Russian units directly. Prisoners go to assaults on the condition that they do not turn back, and machine gunners from the National Guard are stationed behind them.

So, in fact, anyone who is unfortunate enough to be in the colonies in the occupied territories can suddenly find himself in the hell of war, where he will be forced to perform extremely dangerous tasks that do not involve survival. After all, for Russia, the destruction of Ukrainians (by default, the invaders consider all residents of the occupied Donbas to be Ukrainians) by the hands of the APU fighters is the most convenient and cheapest tactic. Moreover, for the lives of some prisoners from the “DNR” or “LNR” no one will present anything to Putin.