Dozens of prisoners released for service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine committed crimes again

Among the thousands of former prisoners who were released early to voluntarily join the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU), dozens have reoffended while already serving in the military.

This is according to a report by Judicial-Legal Gazette, based on an analysis of the Unified Register of Court Decisions in Ukraine.

The register contains around 70 verdicts involving servicemen from the special forces unit “Shkval,” which is composed of former inmates. A similar number of criminal cases involving such soldiers are currently either under court review or at the pre-trial investigation stage.

The most common offenses committed by these individuals include:

• Refusal to obey orders from commanders

• Unauthorized abandonment of military units

• Theft

• Illegal possession and use of narcotic substances

For example, Serhiy P., who was sentenced to 5.5 years for causing grievous bodily harm, was released from prison in May 2024 with one year left to serve. By September, he had refused to take up his position in Donetsk Oblast and was sentenced to five more years, plus the one year remaining from his original term.

In many cases, those who fled their units cited poor service conditions and conflicts with commanding officers as their reasons.

One such case involved Serhiy Y., who had been convicted seven times before joining the AFU, mostly for theft. He claimed that after participating in combat in Russia’s Kursk region, he suffered a combat injury and asked for a short leave to visit his mother. After being denied, he left his unit and was later detained at a checkpoint while “on his way back to the base.” He was sentenced to five years and one month in prison.