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.
Image: Convicts learn to fly drones which will carry deadly bombs
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.
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Image: In 129 Brigade, prisoners also learn how to operate surveillance drones
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.
Image: Serving with 129 Brigade is a lucky break, most freed criminals join the infantry
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.
Image: Once makeshift bombs are produced, they are attached and dropped from drones
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.
Image: Ukrainian forces are modifying mortars, mines and other munitions for their 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.”
Image: Yevhen is one of around 6,800 criminals who are now part of Ukraine’s army
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.
Image: Anatoly, commander of the brigade’s prisoner unit, does not use the term ‘criminals’
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.
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.
Image: It is dangerous work, ‘Ninja’ was just 19 when he died in an artillery strike
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.
Image: Convicts receive medical training, just in case
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.”
Ukraine’s representatives are preparing for renewed peace talks in the US, while dramatic footage has shown Russian tankers being hit by naval drones.
President Zelenskyy said a delegation headed by national security chief Rustem Umerov was on its way to “swiftly and substantively work out the steps needed to end the war”.
They are due to be greeted by US secretary of state Marco Rubio, Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, and the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a senior US official told Reuters news agency.
Image: National security chief Rustem Umerov is leading the delegation. Pic: Reuters
After the US-Ukraine talks, an American delegation is expected to travel to Moscow to meet President Putin.
It comes after Mr Trump released a 28-point proposal last week that would hand swathes of land to Russia and limit the size of Kyiv’s military.
It was widely seen as heavily favouring Russia and led Mr Zelenskyy to swiftly engage with American negotiators.
President Trump said on Tuesday his plan had been “fine-tuned”.
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Ukraine peace plan in 60 seconds
In his evening address on Saturday, the Ukrainian leader said: “The American side is demonstrating a constructive approach, and in the coming days it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end.”
Mr Zelenskyy’s team in the US is without his former chief of staff and lead negotiator, Andrii Yermak, as he quit on Friday after officials raided his home amid a corruption scandal.
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2:59
What do we know about Ukraine’s corruption scandal?
Tankers hit by ‘Sea Baby’ drones
Ukrainian drones were shown hitting two of Russia‘s so-called “shadow fleet” oil tankers in the Black Sea in footage released on Saturday.
Friday’s attack was carried out by the country’s security service and its navy, an official told Reuters. They said both ships “sustained critical damage” that took them out of service.
A security source told Associated Press that domestically-made “Sea Baby” drones were used.
The tankers were under sanctions and heading to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets, the official said.
They have been identified as the Kairos and Virat.
Image: The blasts hit tankers off Turkey’s Black Sea coast. Pic: Turkish Directorate General for Maritime Affairs/Reuters
The 274m-long Kairos suffered an explosion and caught fire en route from Egypt to Russia on Friday, Turkey’s transport ministry said. The crew was evacuated.
The Virat was reportedly struck about 35 nautical miles offshore.
It was attacked by unmanned vessels and sustained minor damage to its starboard side, the Turkish ministry said.
Russia deploys a fleet of often ageing, uninsured and unmarked tankers to circumvent sanctions on its oil exports, which continue to help pay for the Ukraine war.
Another Ukrainian attack halted operations at an oil terminal near the Russian port of Novorossiysk on Saturday.
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1:30
Russian drone and missile attack hits Kyiv
Andriy Kovalenko, from Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said special forces were responsible.
“Naval drones managed to destroy one of the three oil tanker berths of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium in the Novorossiysk area,” he wrote on Telegram.
Six killed in aerial attacks on Ukraine
Russia carried out another onslaught on the Ukrainian capital overnight into Saturday, firing 36 cruise and ballistic missiles and launching around 600 drones.
Officials said three people were killed in and around Kyiv, two in the Dnipropetrovsk region and one in a midday attack in Kherson region in the south.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 29 others were injured in Kyiv, largely due to falling debris from intercepted drones hitting buildings.
The attacks also hit Ukrainian energy facilities and left hundreds of thousands without power in the capital. Supplies have since been restored.
Targeting such infrastructure has become a familiar tactic from Russia over the winter, in what Ukraine officials say is the “weaponising” of the cold.
Grief was not lonely today in Hong Kong. Three days after the worst fire in the history of modern Hong Kong, it feels as though it has barely sunk in.
The weekend at least lent them time to pay tribute, and gave them some space to reflect.
People came in droves to lay flowers, so many a queuing system was needed.
Image: People queue with flowers near the site to mourn the victims of the deadly fire. Pic: AP
Official books of condolences were also set up in multiple parts of the city.
It was the first day large teams of investigators were able to enter the site. Dozens of them in hazmat suits were bused in, their work the grimmest of tasks.
Every so often you could see a flashlight peep through the window of an upper blackened window, a reminder that the fire services are still undertaking dangerous work.
But the reach of the authorities is ramping up here.
Image: Firefighters walk through the burned buildings after the deadly fire. Pic: AP
Yesterday a grass roots aid distribution centre was the vibrant heart of the response.
They received notice at 4am that they needed to pack up and move on. By 10.30am, the mountains of donations were gone, residents watched on, bewildered.
The task apparently will be handed over to professional NGOs.
“I think the government’s biggest concern is due to some past incidents,” one organiser tells us. “They may liken this to previous events. The essence looks similar.”
Image: Pic: AP
She’s careful with her words, but she’s clearly hinting at major pro-democracy protests that were crushed by authorities in 2019.
Any sort of mass gathering is now seen as a risk, the system is still very nervous.
And they might well be because people here are angry.
What, they ask, did the government know? What did it choose to ignore?
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3:14
How Hong Kong’s government failed to act on fire fears
Indeed, Sky News has learnt that residents raised their fears over fire safety connected to extensive renovations on Wang Fuk Court as early as September 2024.
They flagged the suspected flammability of green nets being used to cover the building.
An email response from the Labour Department was sent a few months later to Jason Poon, a civil engineer-turned-activist, who was working with residents. It insists that “the mesh’s flame retardant properties meet safety standards”.
But many clearly didn’t believe it. Posts spanning many months on a residents’ Facebook group continued to voice their fears.
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Hong Kong fire survivors supported by community
When a much smaller fire broke out in the city last month, one resident posted: “All the materials outside are flammable, I feel really worried.”
“I feel that same way” another replied. “The government has no sense of concern.”
For Poon, who dedicates much of his time to fighting lax safety standards in Hong Kong’s construction industry, the whole experience has been devastating.
“They knew all the maintenance was using corner-cutting materials, but they didn’t do anything,” he says.
“This is a man-made disaster.”
We put these allegations to Hong Kong’s Labour Department but they have not yet responded to our request for comment.
Grief may still be the prominent force here, but anger is not that far behind.
More than 300 people have died and dozens are missing following floods and landslides in Indonesia, which has also been hit by an earthquake.
Monsoon rains over the past week caused rivers to burst their banks in North Sumatra province.
The deluge tore through mountainside villages, swept away people and submerged thousands of houses and buildings, the National Disaster Management Agency said.
As rescue workers continued their efforts on Saturday, the head of the country’s disaster mitigation agency said the number of dead had risen to at least 303 people. Authorities fear the figure will increase.
Image: Flooded buildings in Medan, North Sumatra. Pic: AP/ Binsar Bakkara
Other Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have also been affected by torrential rain in the last week, with authorities working to rescue stranded citizens, restore power and communications and coordinate recovery efforts.
On Friday, the Thai government said 145 people had been killed by flooding across eight southern provinces, while two deaths have also been confirmed in Malaysia. Sri Lanka, in South Asia, has also seen 46 deaths following a cyclone, authorities said.
Image: Medan, North Sumatra. Pic: AP/ Binsar Bakkara
The extreme weather was driven by tropical cyclone Senyar, which formed in the Strait of Malacca, Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency said.
Rescuers in Indonesia have been struggling to reach some areas cut off by damaged roads, and where communications lines have come down.
Relief aircraft have been delivering aid and supplies to the hard-hit district of Central Tapanuli in North Sumatra and other provinces in the region.
Image: Tanah Datar, West Sumatra. Pic: AP/ Ali Nayaka
The agency said West Sumatra’s Agam district had also been affected.
Pictures of the rescue efforts show workers trudging through waist-deep mud and areas filled with tree trunks and debris, searching for any victims potentially trapped.
In Aceh province, flooded roads meant authorities struggled to get tractors and other heavy equipment to hilly hamlets which were hit by mud and rocks in the deluge.
Image: Malalak, West Sumatra. Pic: AP/ Nazar Chaniago
Hundreds of police officers, soldiers and residents dug through the debris with their bare hands and spades as heavy rain hindered their efforts.
Meanwhile, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit Sumatra island near Aceh province on Thursday, the country’s geophysics agency said.
Heavy seasonal rain from about October to March often causes flooding and landslides in Indonesia– an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands including Sumatra – where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile floodplains.
Last week, almost 1,000 people from three villages on Java were forced to flee to shelters after the eruption of Mount Semeru, the island’s highest volcano.