Russian commanders use convicts to reconnoiter Ukrainian positions on front lines - SBU

That’s according to the SBU Security Service of Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.

During an interrogation by SBU operatives, one of the captured convicts said he "fought" in Ukraine for two days – deployed on September 21, he was taken prisoner the very next day.

"We are being used as cannon fodder. Our commander sent us forward, at first we were walking alongside, but when we looked back, they were very far behind. Usual cannon fodder: they wanted us to scout their positions, to see who’s where... We’re like cannon fodder... When they were recruiting us, they told us a completely different story," the invader said.

According to the POW, they were personally recruited by the leader of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin. He claimed that the convicts would be fighting side by side with "experienced" soldiers who would train them, and that they wouldn’t be deployed in the front lines.

The prisoners were also promised that they would be able to "wash away their sins" with the blood of Ukrainians and have their criminal record cleared.

Out of 1,200 convicts, 267 immediately agreed to "mobilization", but in a matter of days, the invaders saw that the situation on the front lines is different from what they had been told, realizing that the only way to survive is to surrender.

As reported by Ukrinform, the Armed Forces of Ukraine had eliminated nearly 65,850 Russian forces since the full-scale invasion.