Free to fight The convicts who are plugging gaps in Kyiv's military

Last year Volodymyr Prysiazhniuk quarrelled with his father-in-law, Yuriy.

- Luke Harding

Both men were drunk. "I'd had a litre of beer," Prysiazhniuk recalled. The family row escalated and he punched Yuriy twice in the head. The older man fell over, dead.

In court Prysiazhniuk admitted his guilt and told the judge he had called an ambulance. He got eight years for manslaughter.

Prysiazhniuk had reconciled himself to a long period behind bars. In June, however, he walked out of penal colony number 67, in the western Ukrainian town of Sokyriany, and boarded a bus. Several other inmates joined him. They said farewell to the Soviet-era jail and were driven to a military camp in the country's south-east.

The convicted killer is one of 3,800 inmates freed early under a new scheme designed to plug gaps in Ukraine's armed forces. After two and a half years of all-out war, the government in Kyiv is struggling to find recruits. In May it passed legislation allowing convicts for the first time to volunteer for the army, having previously rejected the idea.

Rapists and mass murderers are not eligible. Also barred are those found guilty of national security crimes. Military outfits are now competing to attract suitable prisoners. According to the justice ministry, 5,900 expressed interest. Some were rejected for health reasons. Prysiazhniuk signed up after two representatives from the first separate assault battalion visited his colony.

It was, he said, a good decision. "People immediately started treating me with respect," he said. "The warmth was incredible. When you are in jail you are nothing. Now I'm a person again."