By Murad Rakhimov | 2025-04-18

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- Veterans of the so-called "special military operation" (SMO, a euphemism for the Russian invasion of Ukraine) continue to kill, maim and rape. Only now they are assaulting their own relatives, neighbors and compatriots.

Government agencies do not track or provide any data about crimes committed by SMO veterans, compelling independent journalists and media outlets to collect and analyze the statistics.

In the three years since the full-scale war began, veterans have victimized more than 750 citizens, with 378 deaths and 376 life-threatening injuries, Verstka reported in February.

These figures reflect only the crimes committed by 392 pardoned or paroled former prison inmates and 284 other veterans who have returned to Russia.

One artifact of the Russian war effort was the mass recruitment of convicts who chose to join the war rather than rot in their cells.

But the actual number of crimes may be significantly higher. Authorities do not publish all court rulings, and many incidents remain unknown to the public.

One-third of all victims are women

Most of these crimes are domestic in nature, often involving alcohol and drugs. The veterans assault relatives and acquaintances most often.

One-third of all victims are women and girls: 37% in cases involving former convicts and 25% in cases involving military personnel.

"Soldiers returning from Ukraine develop symptoms of hyper-arousal, aggression, sleep disorders, emotional numbness and fight-or-flight responses, which easily turn into violence," said Boboyor Turayev, a Tashkent-based analyst of security and political psychology.

In war, the military values force and subordination. The more poorly adjusted veterans feel alienated by the dissimilar values of civilian life. Ex-cons are particularly prone to lashing out.

"Repeated involvement in murder and violence lowers moral barriers," Turayev told Kontur.

"Top officials, influential religious figures, the government and media outlets, as well as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's own policy ... give a green light to all of this. Violence is perceived as an 'acceptable' form of conflict resolution."

Tolerating crimes

Rather than punishing criminals, Russian authorities sometimes even encourage them. Participation in the SMO can significantly reduce the prison term that awaits someone who committed a crime after coming home.

Courts handing down sentences usually consider "combat veteran" status, decorations or injuries as mitigating circumstances.

Such practices erode the rule of law and the deterrence of punishment, Russian human rights activist Alexander Kim said.

"Before our eyes, [authorities are] creating 'rules of the game,'" he told Kontur.

The state is elevating the "lowlifes" into the ranks of the privileged and unpunished, he said.

"A proper state cannot allow serious crimes against individuals to become more or less acceptable, as is currently happening in Russia," said Kim.

Once the war is over, the violent veterans who feel above the law will be many times more numerous than they are now, Kim warned.

Confronting them "will inevitably engender aggressive resistance," said Kim.

"They will need to be set up with jobs and treated for mental trauma. Who, how and what money will do all this are a big question."

Military contracts -- a way to avoid punishment

Officials who might have encountered prosecution in peaceful times are using the war as a way to escape it.

During three years of full-scale war, Russian civil servants, lawmakers and police officers accused of various crimes have seized the opportunity to avoid criminal prosecution and punishment.

Since the beginning of the war, a total of 102 former officials have managed to leave jails and prisons for the front, including 22 mayors and heads of municipalities, the BBC's Russian service reported in February.

That said, not a single high-ranking federal official is among those who have gone to the front.

Most of these "recruits," 79 men, were accused of corruption; 16 were charged with violent crimes.

Of the disgraced 102, 23 have returned. Authorities expunged their convictions.

Seventeen were killed or are missing. The others are still fighting in Ukraine.

'A highly dangerous group'

The prisoners who have joined mercenary forces and the Russian army frequently struggle to re-integrate after coming home.

"Aggravated by war, their criminal experience transforms them into a highly dangerous group ... One of these men was 'Putin's chef,' Yevgeny Prigozhin," said Turayev, referring to the late owner of the Wagner Group mercenary force, who went to prison in Soviet times for robbery.

Exact data on the number of prison inmates recruited for the war are unavailable. In July 2023, after the Wagner Group's abortive mutiny and one month before Prigozhin's mysterious death, sources in the Wagner Group announced that 78,000 combatants had passed through its system. Those 78,000 included 49,000 convicts.

Following Wagner's example, the Defense Ministry started recruiting prisoners.

According to the organization Russia Behind Bars, by last June, approximately 200,000 men had left their prison bunks for the front: 50,000 through mercenary armies and 150,000 through the Russian Ministry of Defense, Olga Prosvirova, a journalist for the BBC's Russian service, reported last June.

'Heroes' of our time

At the Kremlin's behest, the judicial system is very favorable to combat veterans of the invasion and is ready to write off considerable debts for them.

On March 19, the State Duma adopted a bill to expand an out-of-court bankruptcy mechanism for SMO veterans.

Should the bill become law, those veterans may take advantage of the mechanism if their debt does not exceed 1 million RUB ($12,169) and if they have no property to seize.

Applicants must prove their participation in the SMO with a certificate confirmed by the Russian government.

"I would view this proposal as an indicator that Putin's state still needs recruits and plans to continue recruiting 'cannon fodder,'" said Kim.

While veterans of the invasion, upon returning home, commit crimes and terminate bank loans, the Kremlin propaganda machine positions them as the "new Russian elite." They star on TV shows and podcasts.

Almost 200 schools bear the veterans' names, TASS reported in February.

"Naming schools after aggressors is real blasphemy, an attempt to reinterpret historical facts and rehabilitate [the image of] criminals," Sabohat Rakhmonova, a Tashkent-based journalist, told Kontur.

"This is a perversion of the values on which the system for educating and raising children should be built."

More than 200 veterans have taken jobs in Russian schools to teach "Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland." Some head the increasingly common "military-patriotic clubs" that are opening at schools in Russia.