Newsweek reported on December 23, 2023 about claims that Putin has recruited over 100,000 criminals to bolster the Russian Army:

The figures, which reveal the scale of what critics say are Russian President Vladimir Putin's predatory recruitment methods, were provided by Russian dissident-in-exile Vladimir Osechkin, who is the head of the Gulagu.net anti-corruption project, a prisoners' rights group. He is believed to have a vast network of informants inside Russia's prison system.

Osechkin shared with Newsweek a list of some of the recruited prisoners, which he said was supplied by a source in Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), as well as images from security footage within a prison. The overall figures were corroborated by the head of another group that advocates for prisoners' rights in Russia.

The scale of the prisoner recruitment highlights the acute manpower shortages the Kremlin is facing, experts said. It also demonstrates Putin's preference for "disposable" personnel rather than mobilizing the young, urban population, they said, which could result in political repercussions.

However, now that Ukraine admits to doing the same thing - and for much the same reasons - the Western press is celebrating the decision and penning articles praising the bravery and patriotism of the new Ukrainian recruits, like this Sky news report:

Ukraine war: From the prison cell to the frontline, convicts called on to fight

A few weeks ago, the Ukrainian soldier was crammed in a prison cell with seven other inmates, serving time for accidentally killing his friend in a car crash.

Now, Valery, 28, is among thousands of convicts serving their country on the frontline against Russia after being freed from jail under a scheme to bolster Ukraine's depleted infantry ranks.

The usual MSM bullshit. If Russia does it: Bad, evil. If Ukraine does it: Good, smart.

How long can they keep this nonsense up? It's bad news, whichever side does it.

And there is a precedent for this use of prisoners in combat that perhaps neither side would like to be reminded of (see Military History Today):

The German army’s strafbattalions were infantry units made up largely of convicts, felons, malingerers and thugs.

Unlike other penal battalions, 36^th Grenadier Division of the Waffen SS wasn’t established to punish or rehabilitate felons, but rather to ‘weaponize’ Germany’s most dangerous criminals and sociopaths and use them to terrorize civilian populations in the occupied east.

Hitler's strafbattalions provided fodder for the bestselling Sven Hassel books - himself a convicted criminal and considered a traitor in Denmark.