A UN expert says Russian convicts sent to war in Ukraine commit crimes when they return

GENEVA — A U.N.-backed human rights expert on Monday decried violence in Russia by former convicts whose sentences are commuted to fight in Ukraine who then return home to commit crimes including rape and murder.

Mariana Katzarova, who is monitoring rights in Prsident Vladimir Putin's Russia under a mandate from the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, said the return home to Russia of former criminals who have had their legal slates wiped clean is adding to more domestic violence.

The phenomenon first emerged last year among returning fighters, but Katzarova noted that pardons and shortened sentences in Russia for prisoners who agree to fight in Ukraine became law in Russia in March.

Speaking to reporters, Katzarova said an estimated 170,000 convicted violent criminals have been recruited to fight in Ukraine.

“Many of them who return -- and this is an emerging trend -- have been perpetrating new violent crimes to begin with against women, against girls, against children, including sexual violence and killings,” she said in Geneva, where the council is holding its autumn session.

“This has increased, the violence against women in Russia, which already is on a very high level with thousands of women dying each year as a result of domestic violence,” she said. “There is no law in Russia distinctly criminalizing domestic violence or gender-based violence.”

Russia's war in Ukraine is in its third year, and the Kremlin has gone to great lengths to replenish its troops there. In 2022, the authorities mobilized some 300,000 men in a partial call-up, and human rights groups and media also reported an effort to recruit inmates serving time in prisons across the vast country. Initially, the recruitment was carried out by the Wagner mercenary group, but then Russia's Defense Ministry took over, according to activists and media reports.

In March, the Russian parliament passed a law allowing the authorities to release convicted criminals from prisons if they enlist into the army and sign a contract with the Defense Ministry.