(Kyiv) A Ukrainian court on Wednesday ordered the release of the first detainees who volunteered to fight in the army, under a new law aimed at mobilizing more soldiers to fight against the Russian invasion.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, more than 3,000 detainees have expressed a desire to join the army in exchange for release.
A court in the western town of Khmelnytsky said it approved on Tuesday the release of two of them, a man born in 2000 and another in 1981, both convicted of theft, to join the Ukrainian National Guard.
“The court granted their requests and ordered the Khmelnytsky detention center to immediately release the men from their sentences to perform military service under contract,” the court said in a statement released Wednesday.
“Each of the men is suitable for military service, has passed professional and psychological selection, and has a sufficient level of physical fitness,” added the court, which is currently examining around fifty similar requests.
At the beginning of May, Ukrainian deputies adopted a law, signed immediately by President Volodymyr Zelensky, allowing certain categories of prisoners to fight on the front in exchange for conditional release.
It does not concern prisoners convicted of certain serious crimes, in particular intentional homicide of more than two people, sexual violence, attacks on national security or convictions for corruption.
In Russia, as of 2022, the paramilitary company Wagner had recruited tens of thousands of inmates in Russian prisons who were then decimated during extremely deadly attacks, notably during the Battle of Bakhmout.
The director of the Ukrainian NGO “Protection for Prisoners in Ukraine”, Oleg Tsvily, told AFP in May that he feared that Ukrainian detainees would suffer the same fate.