Ukrainian convicts serving sentences for murder should be conscripted and sent to the front line to fight Russian forces, the country's Justice Minister Denis Malyuska has suggested.
Such a move would boost the ranks of the Ukrainian military, address ongoing personnel shortages and would also help reduce pressure on the country's prison system, Malyuska said in an interview with parliamentary broadcaster Rada on Thursday.
Earlier this month, the Ukrainian parliament approved a bill allowing for the incorporation of convicts into the country's armed forces, except for those who have committed crimes against national security or who have murdered two or more people. The exemptions also include rapists, pedophiles, and those responsible for fatal driving accidents under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
However, the minister suggested that those who committed homicide should not be banned from service:
"Perhaps those who know how to kill would be more effective as soldiers than those who have not killed yet, and less dangerous than those who were robbing for decades and then given a machine gun."
Comment: The level of desperation: Opening the prison gates...to hell.