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In a month spent on the entrance line, Aleksandr, an ex-convict serving within the Russian Military, hadn’t seen a single Ukrainian soldier and had barely fired a shot. The specter of dying got here from a distance, and seemingly from all over the place.
Despatched to protect in opposition to a possible river crossing in southern Ukraine, his unexpectedly shaped unit, made up nearly solely of inmates, endured weeks of relentless bombardment, sniper assaults and ambushes. The marshy, flat terrain provided no cowl past the burned-out hulks of cottages. He stated he had watched canine gnaw on the uncollected corpses of his lifeless comrades, drunk rain water and scavenged rubbish dumps for meals.
Aleksandr claims that out of the 120 males in his unit, solely about 40 stay alive. These survivors are being closely pressured by the Russian navy to stay on the battlefield on the finish of their six-month contracts, in keeping with Aleksandr and accounts supplied to The New York Instances from two different Russian inmates preventing on the entrance line.
“We’re being despatched to a slaughter,” Aleksandr stated in a sequence of audio messages from the Kherson area, referring to his commanders. “We aren’t human to them, as a result of we’re criminals.”
His account offers a uncommon window into the preventing in Ukraine from a Russian inmate’s perspective. Models made up of convicts have develop into one of many cornerstones of Russian navy technique because the extended preventing has decimated the nation’s common forces. Aleksandr’s descriptions couldn’t be independently confirmed, however they aligned with accounts from Ukrainian troopers and Russian prisoners of struggle who stated that Moscow used inmates primarily as cannon fodder.
The troopers’s accounts have been obtained by way of voice messages over the past two weeks, some in direct interviews and a few by way of messages supplied by relations and pals. Their final names, private particulars and navy items have been withheld to guard them in opposition to retribution.
Aleksandr’s testimony conveys the brutality imposed on Russian convicts, and the human value Moscow is ready to keep up management of the occupied territory.
The Russian Protection Ministry started to enroll hundreds of inmates from the nation’s jails in particular items known as “Storm Z” in February, after taking up a jail recruitment mannequin utilized by the Wagner personal navy firm within the first 12 months of the struggle.
Aleksandr stated he had enlisted in March, shortly after receiving a protracted jail time period for murder in central Russia. He left at house a spouse, a daughter and a new child son, and was nervous that he wouldn’t survive the torture and extortions in his jail.
Like different inmate fighters, he was promised a month-to-month wage of $2,000 at at this time’s alternate price, and freedom on the finish of his six month contract, a replica of which he shared with The Instances.
Wagner claims that 49,000 inmates fought for its power in Ukraine, and that 20 p.c of them died. Former fighters have described brutal disciplinary measures imposed by the paramilitary group. .
Nevertheless, Wagner survivors have additionally broadly stated that they have been capable of gather wages and return house after six months as free males. To carry the recruitment numbers, Wagner additionally labored to rehabilitate the inmates within the eyes of Russian society, presenting their navy service as a patriotic redemption.
But by February, Wagner had misplaced entry to prisons throughout an influence battle with the navy excessive command, permitting the Protection Ministry to supplant them when it comes to recruiting convicts.
The dimensions and casualty charges within the Russian military’s personal inmate items are unknown. Nevertheless, a tally of the nation’s struggle deaths collected by the BBC and Mediazona, an unbiased information outlet, reveals that inmates grew to become probably the most frequent Russian casualties beginning this spring, underlining the oversize contribution they’ve made to the nation’s struggle effort.
The testimony of Aleksandr and three different former inmates reveals how convict items have advanced underneath the direct management of the Russian Military. The Instances obtained Aleksandr’s contact info by way of a Russian rights activist, Yana Gelmel, and verified his and different inmates’ identities utilizing publicly out there court docket data and interviews with their kin and pals.
They’ve described irregular wage funds that fell far in need of the quantities promised to them by the state and an lack of ability to gather compensation for accidents. Aleksandr additionally stated that his officers had explicitly prevented males in his unit from accumulating lifeless comrades from the battlefield.
He claimed that this was achieved to stop their households from claiming compensation, as a result of the lifeless troopers could be registered as lacking slightly than as killed in motion.
“There have been our bodies all over the place,” Aleksandr stated, describing the preventing on the banks of the Dnipro River in Might. “Nobody was desirous about accumulating them.”
Russia’s Ministry of Protection didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Aleksandr additionally claimed that his officers used threats and intimidation to power surviving inmates to stay on the entrance for an additional 12 months after the tip of their contracts. One other inmate soldier at present serving on the Zaporizhzhia entrance additional east stated that his contract had obliged him to stay in Ukraine for an extra 12 months after acquiring his pardon, this time as an expert soldier.
All inmates spoke of colossal casualties of their items and of their commanders’s seeming disregard for his or her lives.
“Every single day, we reside like on prime of a powder barrel,” Aleksandr stated. “They inform us, ‘You’re nobodies, and your identify is nothing.’”
After a month of coaching close to the occupied metropolis of Luhansk, Aleksandr stated he was despatched along with his unit to carry a line of former vacation properties close to the Antonovskiy Bridge, an space that Ukraine has been concentrating on with hit-and-run assaults since Russia’s forces withdrew to the east financial institution of the Dnipro in November.
They spent the subsequent three and a half weeks underneath fixed bombardment from the invisible enemy, who shelled their uncovered positions from throughout the river and focused them with snipers and in evening ambushes. Enemy drones consistently hovered within the air.
The intention of their mission was unclear to them; they have been instructed to easily stay of their positions. They’d no heavy weapons and no means to defend themselves in opposition to Ukrainian assaults.
“I’m working round with an computerized gun like an fool. I haven’t made a single shot, I haven’t seen a single enemy,” a former inmate from Aleksandr’s unit named Dmitri, who’s now deceased, stated in a voice message on the time. “We’re only a bait to show their artillery positions.” The message was shared with The Instances by Dmitri’s spouse.
“Why the hell do I have to be right here? To take a seat round and shake like a rabbit as a result of shells carry on exploding throughout you?” Dmitri stated in one of many messages.
Aleksandr stated his unit had been left with out meals and water for days after asking their commanders to be relieved, forcing them to scavenge for ration biscuits and drink rain water handled with chlorine.
In late Might, Aleksandr was despatched on a mission to mine a riverbank. His unit was hit by a Ukrainian howitzer shell, which detonated close by mines.
All the different males in his detachment died immediately, he stated; Aleksandr was injured.
“It was raining, and I fell right into a puddle,” he stated, describing the assault. “I crawled away little by little after which coated myself with some rubble, as a result of I knew they’d end me off.” He stated he had managed to ship textual content messages to his unit earlier than shedding consciousness.
The following day, he was dragged out by his comrades and evacuated to a hospital in Crimea. Although he nonetheless couldn’t stroll effectively, he was despatched again to the entrance line, earlier than being put in a hut within the rear with different convalescing fighters.
“It’s so scary to stay right here,” Aleksandr stated. “This isn’t our struggle. There’s nothing human right here.”
Oleg Matsnev and Alina Lobzina contributed reporting.
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