Moscow:
President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russian prisoners killed in Ukraine had redeemed themselves in the eyes of society.
To strengthen regular troops in Ukraine, the army and the Wagner mercenary group have recruited extensively from Russian penal colonies.
“They are dead,” President Putin said during a televised meeting, referring to prisoners killed in Ukraine.
“Everyone can make a few mistakes, they once did. But they gave their lives for the Motherland and completely redeemed themselves,” Vladimir Putin said during the meeting with soldiers fighting near Urozhaine, Ukraine on the Southern Front .
After a brief conversation with the soldiers, President Putin observed a minute’s silence in honor of the prisoners who died in the battle.
The Russian leader said soldiers fighting near Urozhaine – where the Defense Ministry said a Ukrainian attack had been repelled – were “an emblematic example of courage and heroism”.
Convicts have reportedly been used as cannon fodder, including in the eastern Ukrainian hotspot city of Bakhmut.
International experts have said that in some cases prisoners were recruited to fight in Ukraine through threats or intimidation.
Many experts and critics of the Kremlin say that rehabilitating and reintegrating traumatized ex-soldiers is a major challenge for Russia.
Some former prisoners returning from the front commit new crimes.
Russian authorities have traditionally praised patriotism and a culture of self-sacrifice, including by commemorating the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)