“Important stories”: the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation recruited about 30 thousand prisoners in the “penalty” detachment “Storm Z”

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in 2023 recruited the “Storm Z” detachment, participating in the war in Ukraine, up to 30 thousand prisoners in the “penalty”. This is stated in the study of "important stories."

Journalists analyzed more than two thousand messages in social networks about the loss of relatives or friends in the war, in which the numbers of military tokens were indicated. It was on the basis of a pattern in the numbering that they managed to evaluate the approximate number of prisoners in the Storm Z.

According to the “important stories”, the recruitment of convicts under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense began at the end of February 2023 - at the same moment a set of convicts in the Wagner PMC was suspended. Most of the prisoners who fought in Storm Z, from about April, began to issue tokens of the AB series. The last known case of using this series recruited from the colonies by citizens dated August 29, 2023.

In total, the editors found 657 tokens of prisoners with the AB series. The fact that they belong precisely the convicts were found out through the appeals of relatives and relatives with requests to find them. The publication says that the “blind” intervals between known tokens in 85% of cases do not exceed 200 numbers. In 50% of cases there are no more than 60.

By comparing these data, journalists came to the conclusion that from April to August 2023, from 28.2 to 29 thousand prisoners were recruited to Storm Z. After the convicts began to recruit “Storm V” in the detachment, the numbering of their tokens began to coincide with the one that was always assigned to the rest of the military serviceman of the Russian Ministry of Defense. At the same time, the recruitment period in the colonies from February to April 2023 did not take into account. According to the authors of the study, the total number of prisoners who have passed through the Storm Z may exceed 30 thousand people.

“Important stories” also managed by the numbers of the tokens that were issued prisoners to track part of the recruiters route in Russian colonies. So, the token with the number of AB-172646 was issued by IK-12 in Nizhny Tagil, the neighboring number of AB-172647-in IK-46 in Nevyansk, AB-172654-in IK-2 in Yekaterinburg, AB-172669-in IK-47 in IK-47 in Kamensk-Uralsky.

At the same time, the authors of the study drew attention to the fact that the number of tokens of fighters is not always associated with the date of its receipt. So, the owner of the token Ab-184948 received it a month later than the convicted person with the token AB-185026.

The publication states that in total the recruiters of the Ministry of Defense drove through 108 Russian colonies in order to recruit convicts in Storm Z. Representatives of the Wagner PMC previously came to most correctional institutions, but in 19 colonies the set was held for the first time.