Russia’s Storm-Z Penal Units Allegedly Recruited 29,000 Prisoners for Frontline Combat in Ukraine

At least 29,000 prisoners have been allegedly recruited into the Russian Ministry of Defense’s Storm-Z  units, Important Stories media reported on February 6.

The outlet reached this conclusion by analyzing thousands of social media posts about missing fighters from these units, many of which included the service numbers of those reported missing.

According to the outlet, most Storm-Z units’ fighters were issued dog tags with the “AB” series, which was previously assigned to soldiers from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR/LPR). The last such tag was issued on August 29, 2023.

The Russian Ministry of Defense launched recruitment for Storm-Z units in February 2023 as a replacement for the Wagner Group, Important Stories added. By September 2023, recruitment into Storm-Z had ended. However, prisoner enlistment continued under the Storm-V brand, with convicts receiving the same dog tag series as regular Russian military personnel.

The media analysis was based on 6,000 social media posts, with 2,038 cases containing service numbers. Of these, 657 individuals had personal numbers from the “AB” series. By identifying the number range, journalists determined that the issuance density was high, with few gaps between numbers. They excluded a segment where no numbers were found and estimated the total recruitment at around 29,000.

In conversations with journalists, Storm-Z fighters from various prisons said that Russian Defense Ministry representatives recruited them in groups of 150 to 180 people.

This claim is supported by dog tag records: in five instances, prisoners from the same colony were issued consecutive numbers. In two cases, adjacent dog tags were given to inmates from different colonies located 30 to 60 kilometers apart.

On December 3, Nazar Voloshyn, spokesperson for the Operational Strategic Group Khortytsia, stated that Russian forces were deploying women with prior criminal convictions in their assaults on Ukraine’s eastern front.