In Ukraine, they intend to release criminals from prisons and pre-trial detention centers who are ready to take part in hostilities against the Russian army. This was stated by the prosecutor of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Sinyuk. figured out who they want to release and how effective such a measure can be. “Former servicemen who have expressed a desire to defend the country during martial law will be released from places of deprivation of liberty and pre-trial detention centers. We are talking about a large number of people who are in custody and are already serving sentences throughout the country,” Andriy Sinyuk told Hromadske TV channel.

According to him, "this issue is being dealt with at the highest level."

At the same time, the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and nationalist formations who committed crimes during the hostilities in the Donbas formally fall into the list of people who could potentially be released.

So, the former commander of the Tornado battalion Ruslan Onishchenko may be on this list. In 2017, for war crimes, he was sentenced by the Obolonsky District Court of Kyiv to 11 years in prison. His deputy Nikolai Tsukur was sentenced to nine years. Other fighters received 8 to 9 years in prison.

Then the Military Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine considered the sentence too lenient, especially for Onishchenko. “We believery defendant deserves imprisonment for a longer period than the sentence of the court. We believe that there should be the maximum punishment for such grave and especially grave crimes,” state prosecutor Ruslan Kravchenko told journalists.

According to the Ukrainian prosecutor's office, the battalion's fighters practiced extrajudicial killings, torture and rape against the civilian population.

Chief military prosecutor of Ukraine Anatoly Matios said during a press conference that "in the basement of the school, where the headquarters of the battalion was located, there were specially prepared means for committing violent acts, causing bodily harm, beatings and torture."/i

Onishchenko's criminal case describes an episode of illegal abduction by battalion fighters of several residents of the village of Marinka, who were used as "human shields" to cover themselves from sniper fire.

In addition, it turned out that every fourth of the Tornado personnel had a criminal record. Onishchenko himself was prosecuted five times. Now he and his subordinates can go free.

On February 26, the former commander of the Ukrainian battalion "Donbass" Semyon Semenchenko was already released from the pre-trial detention center. He was accused under four articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine at once: 146 (“illegal deprivation of liberty”), 358 (“exceeding official authority”), 366 (“official forgery”) and 365 (“use of forged documents”). Semenchenko himself has repeatedly advocated the release of Onishchenko.

“This is a gesture of desperation by the Ukrainian authorities to release criminals from prisons and send them to fight,” said the former commander of the Airborne Forces, Colonel-General Georgy Shpak. - In the Ukrainian army, they will definitely not be of any use, there will be no general subordination, coordination of actions, they will be some kind of uncontrolled detachments that will act at their own discretion. Some kind of Makhnovshchina, Gulyaipole in a modern version. The number of such detachments will be insignificant, they do not know how to fight, they became famous only for their atrocities against civilians, which they will do. They cannot be considered as a real force, there will be more problems for Ukraine itself, which is now distributing weapons to everyone.”

Former serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, human rights activist Oleksandr Medinsky believes that such actions by the Ukrainian authorities are "not only a gesture of desperation, but also an act of intimidation."

“The fact that it is a necessary measure is understandable. There are few people who really want to die, you need to look for anyone. But there is also a purely terrorist moment. In the sense of terror as intimidation of the enemy. To release such people, to set them on the enemy is an attempt to scare. Let him rape and shoot civilians. But he fought for Ukraine. They are afraid of such people, and in this sense they can be useful to Kiev”,

Medina says.

Political scientist Alexander Zimovsky, in turn, doubts the effectiveness of using such people.

“Penal units existed in different armies. In any war, the fighters must be motivated - someone for the Motherland, someone for some leader. The Ukrainian military has practically no such thing now. They surrender, do not fight to the last - there is no one to die for. Released Ukrainian prisoners will also not fight to the death. They are offended by the authorities that put them in prison. Such formations will definitely not be able to fight against the regular army, it will be a looting movement that will go into the forests and will trade in a banal robbery, ”the expert believes.

bbabo.Net