(1 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dnipropetrovsk region - 21 June 2024
1. Various of Ukrainian prisoners walking on the territory of penal colony
2. Serviceman of Arey Battalion of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, Oleksandr talking to prisoners UPSOUND (Ukrainian): "The main thing is desire, because you are going to defend the Motherland. You won't succeed at 50 percent, you have to give yourself 100 percent, even 150 percent. If everyone gives their best, the goal will be achieved and the tasks will be completed."
++PART COVERED BY SHOTS 1, 3 & 4++
3. Oleksandr talking to prisoners
4. Prisoner Maksym Kravchenko listening
5. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Maksym Kravchenko, 35, prisoner:
++PART COVERED BY SHOTS 4 & 6++
"People who want to go into the army, for them I think it's a good idea. Not everyone here is such a criminal as people on the outside think. They are the same guys here who just stumbled and have a great desire to defend their country. Why not give them that opportunity."
6. Various of Ukrainian servicemen doing interview with prisoners who want to mobilize
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyiv, Ukraine - 27 June 2024
7. Various of pre-trial detention center
8. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Olena Vysotska, Deputy Justice Minister of Ukraine:
++PART COVERED BY SHOTS 7 & 9++
"Here is this open door for the military, for the commanders who said what will happen to the convicts after the decision on parole, if they sign a contract with this or that unit. This led to the fact that we have more than 5,000 such submitted applications."
9. Detention center
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dnipropetrovsk region - 22 June 2024
10. Various of prisoners shooting from machine gun during training with Arey Battalion
11. Prisoners inside armoured vehicle
12. Prisoners getting out of the vehicle
13. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) "Kherson", deputy commander of Arey Battalion:
++PART COVERED BY SHOTS 12, 14, 15++
"We were waiting for them. We prepared for this because we have to pass this experience on to them. We see great potential in them, because in these days, two weeks, we see what kind of aspirations they have, how they try to fulfil these tasks, how they study. It is well worth it. Because they have motivation, they have an inner desire and they are volunteers just like us."
14. Various of prisoners being taught how to shoot
15. Wide of prisoner shooting RPG-7
16. Various of instructor checking soldiers' machine guns
17. Prisoners training
STORYLINE:
Ukraine is expanding the draft to cope with battlefield shortages more than two years into fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion.
That, for the first time, includes inmates at the country’s prisons and penal colonies.
Inmates, who often face harsh conditions of confinement, can be granted parole after an interview, medical exam, and a review of their conviction, under a new law approved by parliament last month.
Certain categories of offenders will be excluded from mobilization.
Olena Vysotska, Ukraine’s Deputy Justice Minister, told the Associated Press that more than 3,000 prisoners have already been released on parole and have been placed with military units.
"We have more than 5,000 such submitted applications," she added.
About 27,000 inmates would be potentially eligible for the new program, according to Justice Ministry estimates.
The Arey Battalion of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army trained prisoners with different kinds of weapons after recruiting them from a penal colony in Dnipropetrovsk region.
"We see great potential in them," said the batallion's deputy commander, known as "Kherson".
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