In Russia, resources for replenishing the army from among prisoners are running out. Since fewer people are willing to fight in Ukraine, the authorities have launched a new tactic: prisoners are being charged with new crimes allegedly committed while serving their sentences. The accusations include “discrediting the army,” “spreading fake news” about the war, and “calls for terrorism.”
The alternative is signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense and going to the front lines.
One such case is the sentence of 34-year-old Andriy Voronin. On July 17, he was sentenced to an additional six years for allegedly spreading “fake news” about the Russian Armed Forces while in a detention center and colony in the Pskov region. There have already been over a hundred similar sentences just in the first half of 2025, and their number is growing.
To recruit prisoners for the war, the Russian authorities also continue to use classic pressure methods—restrictions on drinking water (up to three liters per week), torture, and intimidation.
Against this backdrop, the government is preparing to close 19 prisons. The average number of convicts since the start of the full-scale war has decreased by 200,000—to a historic low of 313,000. Meanwhile, the number of new convicts in 2024 changed very little—only 0.34% less than the previous year.
