Russian authorities are reportedly cutting off the heating freezing prisons to force inmates to go fight in Ukraine.
Temperatures have plummeted to -35°C in many parts of Russia and brutal weather conditions are boosting Vladimir Putin’s weakened troops in Ukraine, according to human rights activists.
“For this reason, they just cut off the heating for them at below zero temperatures,” said Olga Romanova, founder of the Sitting Rus project.
“By doing so, the conditions in prisons must become unbearable so that the men there would go to Ukraine.”
Speaking to German news outlet BILD, Romanova claimed there were three groups of people for whom most people in Russia have no compassion when they are killed in action.
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“They are prisoners, [national] minorities living in poor regions far from Moscow and new citizens,” she said.
“As long as these three groups are fighting and dying in Ukraine, Putin can create the illusion of normality for the rest.”
Putin’s regime is also increasingly recruiting women from its jails. Experts believe up to 1,000 Russian women who are now fighting in Ukraine.
“The success of the prisoner units is, however, quite manageable, which we can also observe in the current developments at the front,” Romanowa said.
“The prisoners are simply sent en masse to the Ukrainian defense line and are sacrificed in the process.”
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