Russia: Penal Battalions Evolve

August 8, 2026: Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, it began recruiting convicts from prisons. If a convict soldier survived a certain period at the front, they received a pardon. So far, several hundred thousand convicts have served as infantry for the war in Ukraine. This is not a new policy, for in World War II Josef Stalin ordered the formation of Penal Battalions in 1942, and these men, called shtrafbats, were encouraged by a secret police machine-gun emplaced behind them to kill any soldiers who hesitated or retreated. Over 400,000 shtrafbats served during the Great Patriotic War, as World War II was called in Russia. Most di…