REUTERS
Russian prisoners have been thrown into the meat-grinder battlefields of Ukraine since the invasion began last year. But as massive numbers of casualties have made the situation increasingly desperate for the Kremlin, reports have emerged that female convicts are now also being sent to the frontline.
In an update on Monday, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Russia has turned to “alternative sources of replenishment of manpower” against a background of “large losses of personnel in the war.” “So, last week, the movement of a train with first-class carriages for the transportation of prisoners towards the Donetsk region was noted,” the ministry wrote on Telegram. “One of the wagons contained female prisoners.”
The allegation was bolstered by human rights activist and Russia Behind Bars founder Olga Romanova, who said she heard reports of women prisoners being sent to Ukraine late last year. “They were taken from the colonies of southern Russia,” Romanova told Important Stories. “I don’t know the exact zone, but they worked in Kushchevskaya [in Russia’s Krasnodar Territory]. For about two months they were kept in agriculture, greenhouses and cowsheds.” Romanova said the estimated 100 women were then sent to Ukraine, though it’s unclear how they were deployed.