‘Very Dangerous People’: Russia’s Convict Fighters Are Heading Home

Tens of thousands of inmates have joined a mercenary group fighting with the Kremlin’s decimated forces in Ukraine. Some of them are returning to civilian life with military training and, in many cases, battlefield traumas.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/world/europe/wagner-convict-ukraine-russia.html

“These are psychologically broken people who are returning with a sense of righteousness, a belief that they have killed to defend the Motherland,” said Yana Gelmel, a Russian prisoner rights lawyer who works with enlisted inmates. “These can be very dangerous people.”