Putin's Suicide Squad

The Kremlin has recruited tens of thousands of prisoners for its 'Storm-Z' units, including at least two cannibals

- ISABEL VAN BRUGEN

A DECADE AGO, FOLLOWING A U.S. DECISION TO arm Syrian rebels to which he was staunchly opposed, Russian President Vladimir Putin was unequivocal on the subject of cannibalism.

"One does not really need to support the people who not only kill their enemies, but open up their bodies, eat their intestines, in front of the public and cameras," he said, likely responding to video footage of a rebel commander cutting the body of a fallen soldier and biting into one of his organs.

"Are these the people you want to support? Is it them who you want to supply with weapons?" Now that stance seems to have changed. Not only has Russia revived the Stalin-era practice of throwing convicted murderers onto the battlefield to support its war in Ukraine, this so-called "suicide squad" includes at least two cannibals.

The Kremlin has recruited tens of thousands of prisoners since the full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine began in February 2022 to create its "Storm-Z" squads, which are deployed to carry out highly attritional, infantry-led frontal assaults at the most dangerous parts of the battlefield.

Russian officials have never acknowledged creating Storm-Z units with convicts, and the Kremlin hasn't confirmed the total number of prisoners recruited by the now-dissolved Wagner Group and the Defense Ministry.

However, Newsweek has learned that the total number of convicts who have been offered presidential pardons in exchange for six months fighting in Ukraine exceeds 100,000, with some 50,000 now free to walk the streets of Russia.

A list of some recruited prisoners obtained by Newsweek revealed that men past retirement age are among them. The majority are convicts from the country's ethnic minority republics, Olga Romanova, the head of Russia Behind Bars, a charity advocating prisoners' rights, told Newsweek.