This measure should help to swell the ranks of the Ukrainian army, while on the opposing side, Moscow has already recruited tens of thousands of prisoners in its penal colonies to fight on the front.
:quality(50)/2023/07/06/64a68815cd1a7_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 1 min
:quality(50)/2024/05/08/080-hl-fgarenzi-1746932-663b80e980432708266513.jpg)
Facing Russia, kyiv is seeking to mobilize more soldiers. To this end, Ukrainian deputies adopted on Wednesday May 8 a bill allowing certain categories of prisoners to go and fight on the front, in exchange for an amnesty, announced on X the deputy Olena Chouliak, member of the Servant party of the people, of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The text was adopted by 279 votes “for” on second reading, she said in her message.
This measure will only concern voluntary detainees, and will not be applicable for convictions for serious crimes, in particular murder, sexual violence or attacks on national security, she lists.
kyiv lacks 400,000 soldiers
More than two years after the Russian invasion of its territory, in February 2022, the kyiv army is struggling to recruit. And this while kyiv estimates it needs around 400,000 new soldiers for this year 2024.
“We cannot survive in the conditions of total war against an enemy with more resources than by consolidating all our forces”recalled Olena Chouliak, specifying also that only prisoners with less than three years of imprisonment to serve will be able to make such a request.
On the opposing side, Moscow has already recruited tens of thousands of prisoners from its penal colonies to fight on the Ukrainian front.
