Ukraine Begins To Recruit Criminals for Its Military

According to the New York Times Ukraine has already released 350 men from jail and hopes to to recruit up to 20,000 prisoners to bolster its military. Volodymyr Zelenskyy (whose presidential term expired on May 20) has said that Ukraine will need 500,000 more soldiers. Ukraine has lowered the age for the military draft, and has stepped-up border patrols to stop draft dodgers from leaving the country. Ukraine’s military has been depleted from two years of war and now Russia has opened up a new front in the north and is breaking through the lines in the east. There are no exact figures, but the EU estimates that there are more than 750,000 men of military age who have skipped town and are now living in the European Union. The original plan was to recruit prisoners with only minor criminal offenses, but officials now admit that all are eligible unless the prisoner has committed two or more murders. (That probably leaves out Mr. Zelenskyy.)