These Ukrainian prisoners say they would rather fight than sit in prison

Recently, nearly 100 prisoners were released early from a medium-security prison on the outskirts of Kyiv and handed over to the country's military.

The men exchange their light brown prison uniforms for combat gear and serve the remainder of their multi-year prison sentences indefinitely on the front lines in Ukraine.

As the country's military struggles with depleted troops, decimated ranks and a decline in volunteers, Ukrainian politicians hope the country's prisons can provide up to 20,000 additional soldiers. To that end, they have launched a recruitment drive to mobilize volunteers.

“It doesn't matter if I shoot or dig trenches,” said Renat Temirgaliev, a 25-year-old prisoner serving the seventh year of a 10-year sentence for murdering his former boss, at a construction site over a payment dispute.

“I want to be a hero of Ukraine. I want to protect my country.”

Temirgaliev is waiting for a new copy of his passport so he can submit his official application to the military.

WATCH | From prisoner to infantryman:

Under Ukraine's new system, prisoners can apply for conscription but need court approval. Some crimes disqualify them from military service, including rape, violations of national security and killing two or more people.

Ukrainian officials claim that this recruitment process is fair, free of coercion and not comparable to the way Russia recruits and uses convicts for its war machine.

Tens of thousands of Russian prisoners signed up as Wagner mercenaries in the first months of the conflict. lured by the promise of a presidential pardon if they survive a six-month contract.

Independent Russian journalists recently reported that more than 17,000 of them were killed in the bloody battle for Bakhmut last year.

In an interview with CBC News on Wednesday in the prison dormitory he shares with two dozen other men, Temirgaliev said he had told his family about his decision to enlist and that his mother had been adamantly against it.

“She thinks I'm going to be killed and won't come back alive,” he said.

“I think everything will be fine. But if it is my destiny to be killed, then so be it.”

Temirgaliev sweeps a hallway at the penal colony on Wednesday. He says military recruiters have come to the facility, but no one is pressured to report. (Corinne Seminoff/CBC)

Already in training

CBC News visited the penal colony and agreed to keep the exact location secret for security reasons at the request of the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice. The news team was allowed to freely interview prisoners who had previously agreed to be interviewed, but prison officials kept a close eye on the prisoners.

The nearly 100 recently released prisoners have already been sent to eastern Ukraine and are being trained near the city of Kramatorsk, officials said.

After tanks rolled into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued an urgent call to arms, declaring that prisoners with combat experience would be released and could “atone for their guilt in the hottest theaters of war.”

According to officials, 13 inmates with significant combat experience were released from the same facility that CBC News visited.

They now assume that several hundred prisoners from the same facility could voluntarily agree to take this step.

Nearly 100 prisoners were recently released from the colony and have already been sent to eastern Ukraine. (Briar Stewart/CBC)

Since Ukraine passed a law in early May allowing convicted prisoners to perform military service, more than 4,500 prisoners have applied for military service, according to official figures, and nearly 2,000 of them have been approved by the court.

After applying, prisoners undergo an interview with the military, followed by a medical examination and a brief court hearing, often via online video.

Closely observed

Criminal judge Dmytro Tkachenko says his court in Boryspil, a small town just outside Kyiv, has already processed the applications of 100 prisoners. He told CBC News he had rejected only two of them because the men did not seem genuinely interested in joining the military.

He says one of the court's concerns is to ensure that the applicants were not put under pressure, as most of them appear to be motivated by patriotism.

“Some of them told me that they felt a certain responsibility for the country, for the Ukrainian people,” Tkachenko said in an interview at the courthouse.

“I believe that some prisoners could be more effective in war.”

Criminal Judge Dmytro Tkachenko says his court has already heard 100 cases of prisoners seeking to join the military. He says they will hear dozens more in the coming weeks. (Corinne Seminoff/CBC)

If the men desert from the army before the end of the war, they face another ten years in prison.

Tkachenko says that they will be closely monitored by the Ukrainian military during their service and will be released after the war, albeit on probation.

After some of the Russian Wagner mercenaries returned from the front, there were several media reports that the newly released men had committed further crimes, including violent attacks and murders.

Too few soldiers

Throughout history, military forces have often increased their numbers by taking in prison inmates. During the Korean and Vietnam wars, U.S. judges sometimes gave convicted prisoners the choice of going to prison or enlisting in the military.

The recruitment of penal soldiers in Ukraine comes at a time when the military is struggling to strengthen its ranks after nearly two and a half years of war. The conscription age has been lowered to 25, and large billboards tower over the streets throughout communities, calling on citizens to sign up for various military units.

Military representatives visited the penal colony near Kyiv last month and talked to prisoners about the process of signing a military contract and what awaits them at the front.

Serhii Druzenko, 23, used to work in a sushi restaurant in Kyiv, but has been in prison for nearly two years after stealing a car and being arrested three days later.

He has less than two years left to serve in prison, but he is applying for military service. His younger brother is already fighting somewhere along Ukraine's long front line.

According to Druzenko, about 70 percent of the men in this colony are interested in joining the colony, while others are hesitant because of the high risk of being killed or injured.

Druzenko says the thought of a paid military contract is part of his motivation, but so is fighting for his country.

“Someone has to defend the motherland,” he said.

“I want my family and those close to me to be safe.”

Serhii Druzenko, 23, has less than two years left to serve on a car theft sentence, but he is also applying for military service. (Corinne Seminoff/CBC)