Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated Friday that convicts recruited into prisons and dying in their thousands on the front lines in Ukraine had “paid off” their debt to society.
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“They are dead. We are all human beings, everyone can make mistakes, that’s what they did. They gave their lives for their homeland and fully compensated themselves,” Putin said as he received Russian soldiers in the Kremlin who were shouting Moscow had excelled in the fight in Ukraine.
AFP
“We will do everything in our power to help their loved ones,” he added.
Before his conversation with the military, which was broadcast on Russian public television, Mr. Putin even insisted on “honoring with a minute’s silence the memory of former prisoners” who died in battle near Ourojaïne on the Southern Front and their Funeral will take place on Friday.
The Russian president said that the Russian soldiers in this sector, who, according to the Defense Ministry, repelled a Ukrainian attack, were “a symbolic example of courage and heroism.”
AFP
After the attack on Ukraine began in February 2022, tens of thousands of prisoners were recruited to the front in Russian prisons in return for the promise of their release, particularly by the paramilitary group Wagner, but also by the regular army.
The prisoners fought primarily in the winter in Bakhmut, the longest and bloodiest battle of the conflict. According to Russian media, their reintegration into society sometimes led to them committing new crimes.
The cult of victimhood has been perpetuated by the Russian authorities since the USSR, particularly through the constant reminder of the Soviet victory in World War II.