In April, the Ministry of Justice conducted a survey among prisoners to examine their opinions on the possibility of release by entering into a contract for military service. According to the Deputy Minister of Justice Olena Vysotska, more than 4,500 convicts agreed with this idea. However, it is worth noting that prisoners serving sentences under articles of the Criminal Code, which are not subject to mobilization, did not participate in the survey process. Their medical history was also not taken into account. According to Vysotska, the most important criterion is motivation.
She also noted that at the beginning of the full-scale conflict, the ministry received more than a thousand applications from convicts who expressed a desire to participate in hostilities. However, neither the military nor the parliament was ready to agree to their mobilization. However, the situation changed during the public debate on changes to the mobilization legislation, which has been ongoing since the end of last year.
Responding to the statements of People's Deputy Oleksandr Bakumov, who claimed that more than 20,000 prisoners in Ukraine could potentially be mobilized, Vysotska explained that from this number, about 4,000 people were excluded due to socially dangerous diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, and tuberculosis. However, even among those who remained, not all expressed a desire to participate in military operations.
