Putin beordrar styrkor att gå in i Ukraina - INVASION NU (2022-02-24)

Russian prisoners who left to fight in Ukraine no longer receive a pardon from Putin and serve until the end of the so-called "SMO" — Russian BBC.

Recruitment of prisoners from Russian colonies in the summer of 2022 was started by the founder of the Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin. Since February 2023, the Russian Defense Ministry has been sending prisoners to the frontlines.

Recruited prisoners were initially promised money and pardon after six months of participation in combat operations. In mid-2023, Putin confirmed that he had pardoned prisoners returning from the war in Ukraine. Among those pardoned were those convicted of murder, including a cannibal and a member of a Yaroslavl Satanist sect that killed four teenagers.

Prisoners will be able to receive full release and expungement of their criminal records only if they are awarded a state award or dismissed due to the end of the war, health loss or reaching the age limit.

Journalists, having studied conversations of relatives of Storm Z fighters in chats, also came to the conclusion that recruitment to these special companies stopped in August last year, and since September prisoners have been enrolled in Storm V units.

Link to the article (in Russian): bbc.com/russian/articles/cle…

Vladimir Putins livvakt som utsågs till Rysslands krisminister

Rysslands president Vladimir Putin har nominerat Alexander Kurenkov till ny krisminister för Kreml. Generalmajor Alexander Kurenkov, 49, är Vladimir Putins tidigare personliga livvakt. Han utsågs till ny krisminister efter att hans föregångare dog efter att ha fallit från ett vattenfall under mystiska förhållanden.

Kate says many of those living in Donetsk and Luhansk, where Russian authorities have ruled for nearly a decade, have experienced a sort of Stockholm syndrome. But people at the Krasnopillya centre and Sumy shelter say the full-scale invasion forced many Ukrainians in occupied territory who had welcomed Russia’s rule to rethink. Most are still afraid to show their support for Kyiv and risk being jailed