This article is about Russian penal units during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For Soviet penal units during the second World War, see Shtrafbat.
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The Russian paramilitary Wagner Group widely recruited from prisons starting in 2022, growing their forces by an estimated 40,000.[2][3] According to the New York Times, Wagner's prison recruitment campaign began in early July 2022, when Prigozhin personally appeared in prisons around St. Petersburg and offered deals to the prisoners.[4] However, the Wagner Group lost access to the prisons in February 2023 amidst schisms with the regular Russian Ministry of Defense.[2][3] The Russian MoD itself reportedly began recruiting prisoners in October 2022.[3]
In April 2023, information emerged about the creation of the Storm-Z series of units by the MoD.[5] After receiving only ten to fifteen days of training,[6] these units are attached to regular Russian forces suffering from battle fatigue.[7] On June 24, 2023, Vladimir Putin signed a law on the recruitment of convicts to contract service with the Defense Ministry, disbanding Storm-Z and replacing it with the new Storm-V units.[8]
The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense described the recruitment as part of a "broader, intense effort by the Russian military to bolster its numbers, while attempting to avoid implementing new mandatory mobilisation, which would be very unpopular with the Russian public."[2]
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that the increase in Ministry of Defense prison recruitment in June 2023 came in "the wake of significant losses in Ukraine".[9]
In a September 2022 speech to prisoners, Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group, said that recruits would be used as shock troops, who lead attacks and take heavy casualties.[10] Experts and captured Wagner soldiers said that prisoner recruits were used as "little more than cannon fodder".[2]
Thousands of Wagner convict soldiers played a key role in the Battle of Bakhmut, taking part in wave attacks against Ukrainian positions.[11][12] Ukrainian media has said that the convicts are "dumped onto the front after 2-3 weeks of poor training and used as cannon fodder" by the more elite, well-trained Wagner group commanders.[13]
In the September 2022 speech, Prigozhin also said that any prisoner who joined and then attempted to flee service would be "considered a deserter and shot".[10] In March 2023, United Nations experts expressed concern over allegations that recruits are "regularly threatened and ill-treated by their superiors,", and said they had information that "several recruits have been executed for attempting to escape and, in other cases, seriously injured in public as a warning to other recruits." They described the tactics as human rights violations and said that they "may amount to war crimes".[1]
By March 2023, the British Ministry of Defense said that about half of the recruited Wagner prisoners had been killed or wounded in Ukraine.[2] In November 2023, British intelligence noted that Russian commanders would often punish soldiers who abuse drugs and alcohol by forcing them to fight in Storm-Z detachments.[14]
Under the Wagner model, prisoners who survive a six-month term on the front are released into Russian society and given a pardon for their crimes.[15][10] Many of the released men are hardened criminals. Russians fear that the released men will continue to commit more crimes.[15] In August 2023, a convicted criminal freed after fighting with Wagner was arrested on accusations of stabbing six people to death in the town of Derevyannoye [ru] in Russia's Republic of Karelia.[16]
Olga RomanovaofRussia Behind Bars said that as a result of this policy, "There are no more crimes, and no more punishments. Anything is permissible now, and this brings very far-reaching consequences for any country."[4]
While many of the Russian prisoners recruited by Wagner and Storm-Z were guaranteed release if they survived their six month term, those who join the new Storm-V units have to serve until the end of the conflict.[17][18]
