20% of Russian prisoners fighting in Ukraine are infected with HIV

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Prisoners with notes

According to Olga Romanova, head of the Rus' Sedentary Foundation, about 50,000 Russian prisoners have been recruited to the war in Ukraine since the summer of 2022. This is approximately 10% of all convicts in the country. Romanova notes that HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis are widespread in Russian colonies - about one in three prisoners have at least one of these diseases.

Ukrainian military intelligence says that about 20% of Russian soldiers recruited from the colonies are infected with HIV. Many of them were found wearing red and white rubber bracelets. This mark means that a person is infected with one of the diseases - wearing these bracelets is mandatory to warn colleagues in case of injury.

HIV-positive Russians captured in Ukraine are provided with antiviral therapy, writes The New York Times.

All together, healthy and sick

Former prisoner Yevgeny, who fought as part of the Wagner PMC, told the publication that he was wounded a month before he was taken prisoner - then in Russia, the medical staff provided him with the necessary assistance, but ignored the red bracelet on his arm, signaling infection. “There were no conditions for HIV-infected people. They treated everyone together, healthy and sick,” he said. Another former prisoner, 31-year-old Vadim, confirmed in a conversation with the publication that in the "chaos of battle" bracelets mean little.

Another former prisoner who joined the Wagner PMC, 42-year-old Ruslan, served one year out of 11 for drug trafficking. According to him, in the colony he received HIV prevention drugs, but they did not work, and Ruslan was afraid life.

Last year he spent several weeks in bed due to pneumonia. In December, Ruslan joined the Wagner PMC, and in January he suffered pneumonia again at the training camp, but in a mild form. A month later he was sent to storm near Bakhmut, after which he was captured.

Ruslan supports Yevgeny Prigozhin's policy of recruiting HIV-positive prisoners to the front and says he agreed to go to war for a second chance at freedom and treatment.

HIV-positive prisoner Timur told reporters that in Russia he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for drug trafficking. According to him, doctors in the colony also gave him ineffective drugs to fight the virus. Timur was preparing for the fact that he would not live to see the end of his term, and in December he agreed to join the Wagner PMC and spend six months at the front in exchange for a pardon and the provision of antiviral drugs.

According to him, most of his colleagues died on the very first day when they were sent to storm Bakhmut. “I realized that I would either have a quick death or a slow death. I chose the fast one,” Timur said.