Ukraine war: From the prison cell to the frontline, convicts called on to fight

Published

10 months ago

January 29, 2025

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A few weeks ago, the Ukrainian soldier was crammed in a prison cell with seven other inmates, serving time for accidentally killing his friend in a car crash.

Now, Valery, 28, is among thousands of convicts serving their country on the frontline against Russia after being freed from jail under a scheme to bolster Ukraine’s depleted infantry ranks.

Asked what it was like to be on the battlefield instead of behind bars, he said: “My motivation was mainly to defend Ukraine, my family, and my loved ones…

“The feeling when you leave prison and realise that you’re free again is indescribable. Freedom is, after all, freedom. It was very tough back there [in jail], and when I came out here, everything was new, everything was great. It felt like I was born again.”

Some 6,800 criminals have been freed from jails across Ukraine to join the armed forces since the government first unveiled its prisoner recruitment drive last May. By contrast, Russia has long been sending its felons to the frontline.

Not every Ukrainian inmate can apply for release. Those convicted of the most serious offences, including the murder of two or more people, sexual crimes and treason, are barred.

All eligible volunteers must pass medical checks and have their application approved by a court. They sign a contract, agreeing to fight without a holiday for a year and to serve until the end of the war. At that point, they will immediately be granted parole.

Sky News met a group of criminals – convicted of a range of offences, from theft to thuggery – who are fighting to help hold onto a chunk of Russian territory that Ukraine captured last summer.

They are part of a regular armed forces brigade, but their unit – named Shkval, which means squall in English – of about 100 felons operates separately from everyone else.

Valery, whose callsign is “Hacker”, and three other recently-released prisoners, are learning how to fly drones.

“I’ve always been fascinated by drones,” Valery said, speaking as he handled a control panel, buzzing a rotary aircraft around a frozen field in northeastern Ukraine.

Joining ‘drone’ brigade is lucky break

It is a lucky break for him as most freed criminals are channelled straight into the infantry of whichever brigade they join.

This is one of the most dangerous jobs on the battlefield, with soldiers ordered to storm enemy positions or placed at the very front of defensive lines.

In 129 Brigade, however, there is also the opportunity for prisoners with the potential to learn other skills, such as how to operate attack and surveillance drones.

Yevhen, 33, had been part way into a seven-year sentence for hitting someone in the neck during a fight when he opted to leave prison and join the military last month.

He has just started learning how to operate drones, saying: “I’m helping Ukraine, and that’s my duty. I could have just sat idly in prison, but here, I can be of more use.”

The brigade’s prisoner unit is commanded by a tall, broad man with a big personality, who – unlike the men he leads – is not a convict. A businessman and former basketball player, he has been fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion since it began.

Anatoly, 55, said the influx of criminals is a welcome resource to ease up pressure on the frontline.

“These guys are now giving people like us – well, not us, since we’re tireless – but other soldiers, like shooters, a chance to rest, breathe, and rotate,” he said sitting in a makeshift office in a building that was once a school but has become a base for his men when they are not fighting inside Russia’s Kursk region.

We don’t call them criminals

He said lots of prisoners want to join his team, predicting he would have enough to form a battalion of 500 men by the end of February.

“They want to come to us because our approach is more proper-military,” Anatoly said.

“It’s not just about handing out rifles for three days and sending them off [to fight]. We run a full [training] cycle, and we personally carry out combat training with each soldier.”

He also forbids anyone in the wider brigade to use terms such as “convict”, “jailbird” or “criminal” when referring to his soldiers once they have put on a uniform and vowed to serve.

It is dangerous work.

Anatoly described how his men have been part of Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk since it began in August. In that time, he has lost 17 soldiers, with another 30 wounded.

He praised their heroism, despite having criminal records, singling out one 19-year-old who had been in an orphanage, found himself in trouble with the law and ended up in prison.

Anatoly said this young man, callsign Ninja, had taken out nine highly-trained Russian soldiers before dying in an artillery strike last December.

While Ninja was an example of the courage shown by many of the former prisoners under his command, Anatoly said there have also been some disappointments.

He has sent about 10 convicts back to jail for breaking the rules, including one man who tried to flee multiple times and stole a car.

“That’s when you realise that some people are beyond help, they have no place here.”

Extra time for breaking the rules

Under the prisoner release contract, anyone who violates the deal will be returned to prison and receive a further ten years’ jail time on top of whatever sentence they were already doing.

In a separate building on the base, a group of newly arrived convicts receive medical training for the kinds of injuries they may experience in combat.

Denys, 43, listened intently.

He had been serving time for deserting his previous army unit.

“I’ve made amends and decided this [re-joining the armed forces] was the right thing to do,” he said.

Asked how it felt to be training for battle just three days after leaving his prison cell. Denys said: “War. It doesn’t feel great, but it has to be done.”

World

Russia ‘making concessions’ and Ukraine ‘happy’ with peace deal talks, says Trump

Published

1 hour ago

November 26, 2025

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Russia 'making concessions' and Ukraine 'happy' with peace deal talks, says Trump

Donald Trump has claimed Russia is “making concessions” in talks to end the Ukraine war – and that Kyiv is “happy” with how talks are progressing.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he flew out to his Florida estate for Thanksgiving, Mr Trump said “we’re making progress” on a deal and said he would be willing to meet with both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy once they are close to an agreement.

He also said his previously announced deadline of Thursday, which is Thanksgiving, was no longer in place – and that the White House’s initial 28-point peace plan, which sparked such concern in Kyiv, “was just a map”.

Asked if Ukraine had been asked to hand over too much territory, Mr Trump suggested that “over the next couple of months [that] might be gotten by Russia anyway”.

Moscow’s concessions are a promise to stop fighting, “and they don’t take any more land”, he said.

“The deadline for me is when it’s over,” he added. “And I think everybody’s tired of fighting at this moment.”

Before boarding the plane, Mr Trump claimed only a few “points of disagreement” remain between the two sides.

Mr Trump’s negotiator Steve Witkoff will be meeting with Mr Putin in Moscow next week, the president said, while American army secretary Daniel Driscoll is due to travel to Kyiv for talks this week.

The chief of Ukraine’s presidential staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote: “Ukraine has never been and will never be an obstacle to peace. We are grateful to the US for all its support.

“The meeting between the presidents will be thoroughly and promptly prepared on our part.”

Zelenskyy warns against ‘behind our back’ deal

Yesterday, a virtual “coalition of the willing” meeting that featured Ukraine’s allies took place, which was attended by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.

In a speech, Mr Zelenskyy told attendees: “We firmly believe security decisions about Ukraine must include Ukraine, security decisions about Europe must include Europe.

“Because when something is decided behind the back of a country or its people, there is always a high risk it simply won’t work.”

A joint statement from coalition leaders Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, and Friedrich Merz said they had agreed with Mr Rubio “to accelerate joint work” with the US on the planning of security guarantees for Ukraine.

But a Ukrainian diplomat has warned major sticking points remain in the peace deal being thrashed out – primarily the prospect of territorial concessions.

A warning from the Kremlin

Meanwhile, Moscow has stressed that it will not allow any agreement to stray too far from its own objectives.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned any amended peace plan must reflect the understanding reached between Mr Trump and Mr Putin over the summer.

“If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation,” he said, referring to the two leaders’ meeting in Alaska.

As negotiations continue, so have Russian attacks, with Kyiv hit by a barrage of missiles and hundreds of drones early yesterday morning.

Seven people were killed with power and heating systems disrupted, as residents sheltered underground.

Meanwhile, three people died and homes were damaged after Ukraine launched an attack on southern Russia.

‘A critical juncture’

French President Emmanuel Macron has said peace efforts are gathering momentum, but “are clearly at a critical juncture”.

And during the annual White House turkey pardon ahead of Thanksgiving, Mr Trump told reporters: “I think we’re getting close to a deal. We’ll find out.

“I thought that would have been an easier one, but I think we’re making progress.”

World

Trump’s peace plan had Russian fingerprints all over it – and now we know why

Published

3 hours ago

November 26, 2025

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Trump's peace plan had Russian fingerprints all over it - and now we know why

In this story, there’s no substitute for hard news.

To learn of US envoy Steve Witkoff and his Russian interactions is to understand the handbrake turn towards Moscow.

If there was much surprise and confusion about the origins of a peace proposal that had Russian fingerprints all over it, there is less now.

The Bloomberg report of Witkoff’s recent involvement distills eye-watering detail of his contact with Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s senior adviser on foreign policy.

Among the revelations, it tells of the American advising the Russian on dealing with Trump.

In a phone call last month, Witkoff told Ushakov that Zelenskyy was coming to visit the White House, and suggested Putin speak to Trump beforehand.

Witkoff reportedly said: “The president will give me a lot of space and discretion to get to the deal.”

He spoke of Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan and suggested that “maybe we do the same thing with you”.

A good impression of a useful idiot

Subsequently, Witkoff drafted the controversial peace proposal with his Russian counterparts, and the US pressured Ukraine to accept it.

The report paints an unflattering picture of Trump’s envoy doing a good impression of a useful idiot.

There must be serious questions surrounding his engagement with the Russians and serious concerns around consequences that are potentially catastrophic.

Moscow’s threat to Ukraine and to the security infrastructure of Western Europe is strengthened on his handshake.

He’ll press the flesh in Russia once more – Donald Trump is sending Witkoff back to Moscow for further talks aimed at bridging the Ukraine-Russia impasse.

Scandal isn’t what it used to be

Putin has given the Americans little to no encouragement around their reworked plan and Kyiv will shudder at what Trump’s “Mr Fixit” might fix next.

They will despair of his continued involvement at any level and what it says about Trump’s perspective and where his loyalties lie.

In any other job, Witkoff might have been sacked for being irredeemably compromised.

At any other time, this would have been viewed, universally, as a major scandal.

But under Donald Trump, scandal isn’t what it used to be.

The president and his point man continue to consort with Vladimir Putin.

On the evidence of Steve Witkoff’s interaction, the power dynamic leans less Trump than we might have thought.

World

Venezuela: Maduro brandishes sword and vows to defy any US attempt to overthrow his government

Published

3 hours ago

November 26, 2025

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Venezuela: Maduro brandishes sword and vows to defy any US attempt to overthrow his government

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has vowed to defy any US attempt to overthrow his government – telling crowds that “failure is not an option”.

The 63-year-old brandished a sword as he addressed supporters during a march in Caracas, against a backdrop of growing tensions with Donald Trump’s administration.

Dressed in camouflage fatigues, Mr Maduro said: “We must be ready to defend every inch of this blessed land from imperialist threat or aggression, no matter where it comes from.”

Since September, US military forces have been conducting a series of strikes against vessels suspected of drug trafficking in international waters, killing at least 80 people.

Washington has claimed that several of these boats had departed from Venezuela, with Mr Maduro describing the deployment as an assault on the nation’s sovereignty.

‘Stop this madness’

Yesterday, Cuba also accused the US of seeking a violent overthrow of Mr Maduro’s government – and called its military presence in the region “exaggerated and aggressive”.

The country’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, said ousting Venezuela’s leader would be extremely dangerous and irresponsible, not to mention a violation of international law.

He added: “We appeal to the people of the United States to stop this madness. The US government could cause an incalculable number of deaths and create a scenario of violence and instability in the hemisphere that would be unimaginable.”

Reports suggest the US is planning to launch a new phase of Venezuela-related operations in the coming days.

Critics have questioned the legality of America’s campaign and argue it amounts to extrajudicial killings, with a recent poll suggesting just 29% of voters support this policy.

Officials within Maduro’s government have claimed that Washington’s actions are being driven by economic motives.

Venezuelan minister Delcy Rodriguez said: “They want Venezuela’s oil and gas reserves. For nothing, without paying. They want Venezuela’s gold.

“They want Venezuela’s diamonds, iron, bauxite. They want Venezuela’s natural resources.”

Donald Trump, like his predecessor Joe Biden, does not recognise Mr Maduro as the country’s leader.

He is currently on his third term after being declared the winner of last year’s presidential election, despite evidence that the opposition defeated him by a two-to-one margin.

Mr Maduro and senior officials have been repeatedly accused of human rights violations against real and perceived government opponents.

Earlier this week, the US designated Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles – Cartel of the Suns in English – as a foreign terrorist organisation for importing illegal drugs to the States.

The Trump administration has claimed that Maduro is part of this group, but Venezuelan officials have described its mere existence as a “ridiculous fabrication”.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he travelled to Florida for Thanksgiving, the president suggested he might be planning to talk to Mr Maduro.

“If we can save lives, if we can do things the easy way, that’s fine,” the US president said. “And if we have to do it the hard way, then that’s fine too.”

Carlos Diaz Rosillo, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defence during the first Trump administration, does not believe America will go to war with Venezuela.

He told The World With Dominic Waghorn: “What I do see is a strategy of maximum pressure on the regime. I do think if there’s any change, that change has to come from within the military.”

Dr Rosillo said the official position of the US government is not regime change, but Mr Trump would like to see that happen in Venezuela.