The Kremlin began to pay debts to prisoners who joined the Storm-Z detachments

Russian prisoners are offered freedom if they agree to serve as mercenaries in Ukraine. Credit: Reuters/Alexander Yermochenko

The Kremlin has reportedly begun to write off debts from assassins and armed robbers who agreed to fight in its frontline convict battalion, Shturm-Z.

Convicts are already receiving pardons for fighting on the side the Kremlin in Ukraine, but Russia's high casualty rate is scaring off potential recruits, providing additional incentives.

One example, published by opposition media website Verstka, was of Pavel Alekhin, who was sentenced last December to 22 years in prison for the murder of a pensioner in central Russia during a robbery.

“Immediately after the verdict, Alekhine signed up for the Storm-3 part, and in May 2023 he became the hero of federal media materials,” Nestka wrote, describing how Alekhine was pardoned and now receives a salary from the Ministry of Defense.

In it it was also reported that “11 enforcement proceedings totaling 639,000 rubles (just over £5,000) were immediately dropped” when Alekhine signed up to fight Storm-Z.

The Russian Ministry of Defense created its own Storm- Z at the beginning of the year, after observing the success of the Kremlin group of Wagner mercenaries in replenishing their ranks with prisoners.

Western intelligence estimates that Russia has lost up to 200,000 soldiers since the invasion of Ukraine. Desperate to reinforce its units without announcing full mobilization, the Kremlin approved plans to allow recruitment from prisons.

But while recruits to the Russian Storm-Z units received pardons, salaries and debt relief. , there is a potential major cost.

Reports from the front lines in Ukraine indicate that Storm-Z units are taking heavy casualties, and their troops are often used as expendable defenders in forward trenches or deployed on close-range kamikaze assault missions.

When part of the Storm-Z fighters surrendered to Ukraine in May, they complained that they were not given enough food and that regular Russian soldiers stationed in the rear trenches would have shot them if they tried to flee.

The letter Z is not used in Cyrillic but was an identifier for one of the first Russian battle groups to invade Ukraine last year. It has since been adopted as a pro-war symbol.