The frontline instead of prison? Can convicts really be sent to war?
21 March 2024 19:09
ЕКСКЛЮЗИВ
on 13 March, the Verkhovna Rada registered draft law No. 11079 on the conditional release of convicts from serving their sentences for military service. Despite the fact that the bill has not yet been heard, it has already sparked debate in society. Kommersant Ukrainsky 
decided to find out who can be released and sent to the frontline and who is not eligible for parole, what are the pros and cons of such an initiative, and whether paedophiles and murderers can really be released.
Who can be released from prison and go to the frontline
Currently, the mobilisation potential among convicts is about 76,000: 50,000 people have a criminal record but have already served their sentences, and 26,000 are currently in prison. These figures were voiced by Deputy Minister of Justice Olena Vysotska in an interview with Suspilne. According to her, everyone will be eligible for parole, except for those who have received sentences under articles against national security, statehood, collaborators, traitors, etc.
People who have been convicted of sexual or violent crimes will also be able to go to war.
“Each case is individual. There may be a terrible article, but a person can change because specially developed tools, re-socialisation and correctional programmes have been applied to them for several years,”
– vysotska said.
Former MP and lawyer Leonid Yemets disagrees.
“It’s one thing if a person commits a road accident, but it’s another when a person rapes a minor and then kills her. This person did not give a damn about any principles of morality, conscience or honour. One cannot hope and believe that this person will patriotically fulfil his duty as a soldier, and will not betray and run to the other side at any convenient opportunity,”
– yemets told Kommersant Ukrainian .
According to the lawyer, the draft law needs to be rewritten and corrected, as it has many inaccuracies.
“As for the people who are deprived of their freedom because they are dangerous to society, they should remain behind bars, because who will be responsible for the crimes they commit in the future?”
– he asked.
Have the prisoners fought before?
Yevhen Dykyi, a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war and former company commander of the Aidar battalion, told his story of commanding people who had been imprisoned in an exclusive commentary.
“I actually commanded former prisoners in 2014. The thing is that back then we were all volunteers and when we went to war, we didn’t ask people any questions, except whether they were ready to fight. And when they started legalising us and registering us as allegedly mobilised, it turned out that some of us were not allowed to register because they had criminal records. And you know what – none of these people went back home, they stayed to fight unregistered, without compensation and so on. And they fought well,”
– said Dykyi.
Moreover, according to the former company commander of the Aidar battalion, some of these people even used the “skills” for which they had received a criminal record.
“I had a fighter with three convictions for robbery. So his gangster’s talk and gangster’s courage only helped him in the war. He went on such reconnaissance missions that some of the volunteers would not have dared, to put it mildly. A person may well not be friends with the law and dislike the police, but be a patriot and hate external enemies,”
– emphasised Dykyi.
Are the military ready for this?
Sergeant Oleksandr Lebid does not support the draft law on the release of convicts for contract service. In his opinion, the draft law on mobilisation as a whole has become an instrument of political bargaining rather than a process of logical and legislative transformation of the army of a country at war.
“I have a perfectly reasonable proposal to Minister Malyuska. Let him create these units, heroically lead them himself and “lead them into battle” to dig trenches and build fortifications somewhere in the Support Forces. Or even better, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will create separate companies from them under its leadership. Why not, the contingent is familiar, they have experience,”
– he wrote on his Facebook page.
At the same time, Yevhen Dykyi, on the contrary, believes that the current military is ready for such a step. Moreover, in his opinion, there is no need to create separate battalions for such people – they should be socialised and fight alongside other soldiers.
“It would be right to scatter them one by one in regular units. To avoid the situation where we have units that are guided, so to speak, by ‘zone concepts’. They should live an army life and follow army regulations,”
– says Dykyi.
Despite all this, both lawyers and the military agree on one thing – the issue of early release of convicts is controversial. And although, as Olena Vysotska said, the Ministry of Justice refused to restrict the rights of prisoners by article during the preparation of the draft law, the question of whether rapists, paedophiles and other persons who have committed serious offences can be given the opportunity to defend their homeland at the front and be granted parole requires serious discussion both in Parliament and beyond.
Author: Aliona Kaplina
