‘They were told fairy tales’

Russia recruited these women prisoners to fight in Ukraine. Six months later, they’re still waiting to be deployed.

Looking to fill the army’s ranks for the ongoing war against Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry began recruiting inmates from a women’s prison in the Leningrad region in the fall of 2023. Promised money and freedom, some women joined up, hoping for early release and the chance to see their children again. However, six months after signing contracts with the military, the women at Correctional Facility No. 2 are still waiting to be sent to the front. And some fear they won’t be called up until after they’ve served out their sentences. The St. Petersburg outlet Bumaga found out why these women agreed to go to war and what could happen to them now. Meduza shares an English-language adaption of the story.

Russian Defense Ministry recruiters came to Correctional Facility No. 2 at least twice before New Year’s, says Maria (name changed), a former inmate. She was released from this women’s prison in Russia’s Leningrad region in late February 2024, after serving more than a year for a non-violent crime. Three friends of current prisoners also confirmed the fall recruitment drive at the correctional facility.

According to Maria, the first visit was sometime around last September. “They invited several hundred people,” she remembers. “The Defense Ministry representatives explained what they wanted. And in a year, according to them, your conviction would be expunged.”

Maria says that the group of prisoners invited to hear the Defense Ministry’s pitch included a 62-year-old inmate and women who had only months left until their release. “There were [people charged with] all kinds of crimes there,” Maria recalls. “There were [women imprisoned for] minor things like theft — one girl had only a one-year sentence — and there were women serving time for murder. Apparently, the lists were compiled completely randomly: whoever got swept up, got swept up.”

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‘Cannon fodder’

Olga Romanova, the head of the prisoners’ rights organization Russia Behind Bars, corroborated Maria’s story. Romanova was one of the first to report that women prisoners were being recruited for the war in Ukraine. She told Bumaga that the Defense Ministry usually doesn’t take the severity of a prisoner’s crime into account during the selection process — the most important criterion is that the convict doesn’t have HIV.

Correctional Facility No. 2 is designed for 982 people, but currently houses around 700 inmates. Multiple sources told Bumaga that in early fall 2023, around 30 to 40 of the prison’s inmates signed contracts to go to war.

According to Romanova, Russia first started recruiting female prisoners in the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DNR”) back in early 2023. By the end of the summer, the Defense Ministry had expanded to Russia’s south: relatives of inmates from Lipetsk Correctional Facility No. 7 told Sota that women convicts signed two-year contracts and went off to war.

Romanova estimates that up to 1,000 female inmates have already been recruited into the Russian army to fight in Ukraine. However, it’s difficult to judge how many have already been sent to the front. In early 2023, the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff was the first to report that female Russian prisoners were being transported to the front. Romanova says she saw pictures of women killed in combat on Ukrainian social media. “They might well be the convicts,” she speculates.

According to both Maria (the former inmate) and a friend of a current prisoner, recruiters offered the women at Correctional Facility No. 2 jobs as snipers and nurses. However, as far as Romanova knows, female prisoners are actually sent to the front line as ground troops.

“They’re told fairy tales that they’ll be snipers, but you need special training for that,” says Romanova. “Of course they can’t be snipers, so they go as cannon fodder. It’s hard to say if they get any preparation at all. I’ve never heard of them being trained.”

Promises and propaganda

Defense Ministry recruiters returned to Correctional Facility No. 2 just before the New Year, Bumaga’s sources said. But they didn’t take anyone away with them. “[They] talked to the women who’d agreed to sign contracts,” Maria recalls. “The women said they brought a guy with them who’d come [from the war in Ukraine] and who’d also gone there from prison.”

Bumaga couldn’t find the exact amount of money the women were promised for joining up. Maria says they were told there’d be “a one-time payment in the range of 300,000–400,000 rubles [$3,200–$4,300], and then a salary of over 100,000 [$1,100 per month].” One inmate’s friend gave very different numbers: one million rubles ($10,800) upfront, followed by 300,000 rubles ($3,200) per month.

“I had no desire to go to war; I don’t want to risk my life,” Maria says about her own decision not to sign a contract with the Russian military. “Most women were very opposed to [the Defense Ministry’s visit]. Everyone has families, children. War is a man’s business, not a woman’s.”

Maria says those who did sign contracts had their own reasons. Some were attracted by the large sums of money, some wanted early release (for their own sake or for the sake of their families), and others wanted to get out of prison so they could regain custody of their children. “What if a woman had a long sentence — is her kid supposed to live in an orphanage for eight years?” she asks rhetorically. “[The child] might be given to another family. The women thought if they could get out in a year, then they could get their kids back.”

The Russian Defense Ministry recruited Irina (name changed) in the fall of 2023. One of Irina’s friends told Bumaga that she’d agreed to sign the contract because “she wanted to clear her record and get her kids back.” “She has three children; she worried that they wouldn’t give them back to her after [she got out of] prison,” says the friend. “Also, her boyfriend is in Wagner Group, so I don’t think she was concerned. He also went [off to war] from prison and came back with a decent amount of money. That was one of the reasons she wanted to go. Now, her boyfriend has gone back to [the front in Ukraine].”

Bumaga’s sources can’t recall any cases of female prisoners being forced to sign contracts with the military. On the contrary, Romanova says she gets messages from women who “really want to fight.” “Women are also susceptible to propaganda,” she explains. “There aren’t any alternative sources of information in the prison. […] Of course, the idea of a pardon plays a huge role too: [getting] to hug their children sooner, getting to hug their moms.”

In limbo

By the end of February 2024, the women prisoners recruited from Correctional Facility No. 2 still hadn’t been taken to the army, notes Maria. She says neither the convicts nor the prison staff know why.

According to Olga Romanova, sending the women to war has become more difficult since last fall, when Russia changed the conditions for convicts serving in the army, as BBC News Russian has reported previously. Before, both the Wagner Group and the Defense Ministry offered convicts amnesty and a return home after six months of service. Now, convicts are required to serve until the end of the war, just like draftees and professional soldiers.

In June 2023, the Russian State Duma passed a bill on “conditional release,” or parole, in order to better define the status of convicts serving on the front line. According to the law, Russian prisoners who sign a Defense Ministry contract and are mobilized can essentially receive suspended sentences. However, official release or expunged records are only possible if the convict receives a state award or is discharged from the army. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree on mobilization is still in effect, there are only three possible ways to get out of army service: the end of the war, medical discharge, or reaching the maximum age limit for service. The State Duma legally enshrined these mechanisms into Russia’s Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code this March.

“From what I understand, women were recruited in September [2023], and then they didn’t know what to do with them next,” says Romanova. “Now everyone is being sent off to war not as pardoned individuals, but as paroled individuals, and they’re left there until the end of the war. And no one knows if these women are supposed to fight according to the old or new rules. But I assume the women will refuse to fight indefinitely.”

According to Bumaga’s sources, some women have managed to terminate their contracts with the military. Russia Behind Bars is aware of at least two such cases in Correctional Facility No. 2., and Maria says there may be more. Irina, who has three children, was allegedly one of the women who got out of her contract. Her friend told Bumaga that after the recruiters stopped coming to the prison, she tried to apply for parole. “She was denied on the grounds that she had a contract with the Defense Ministry,” the friend explains. “Then, a couple of months later, she wanted to annul the contract and did so without any problems.”

According to Romanova, recruitment of female prisoners may resume soon. Since the State Duma definitively adopted bills on the status of prisoners at war in March, the new norms are expected to enter into force in the near future.

“Some women are worried that now, they might be taken away when they’re released,” says Maria. “Rumor has it that there’s no specified end date for calling up people who signed contracts,” she adds. Romanova doesn’t rule out the possibility of this happening.

Story by Ekaterina Barkalova for Bumaga