The Kremlin refuses to review the granting of pardons to prisoners for participating in the war in Ukraine

33-year-old Nikolaj Ogolobiak was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the ritual murder of four teenagers committed in 2008. On Tuesday, local media reported that he had been released earlier this month after fighting in Ukraine.

“Now everyone is looking very closely at the pardon lists,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“However, I repeat that we are talking about certain conditions related to being on the front line,” he said, adding that the arrangement had not been revised.

For the gruesome murders committed 15 years ago in the Yaroslavl region of Russia, N. Ogolobiak and six other members of the self-proclaimed cult group were sentenced to long prison terms.

As the Russian portal “76” reports, he was supposed to serve his sentence in prison until 2030, but when Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of last year, N. Ogolobiak was drafted into one of the “Storm-Z” battalions of Russian criminals and convicts.

“After the injury, he is disabled,” his father told the portal.

Olga Romanova, head of an independent prisoners’ rights group, claims that Russia has probably recruited around 100,000. people from prisons to take part in the fighting in Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, Moscow is now using convicts to replace most of the soldiers lost in the fighting.

“Currently, the Russian military has made prisoners its main source of replenishing battlefield losses,” he said at a news conference on Wednesday, citing intelligence.

This practice is highly controversial. Some time ago, the local media reported several serious crimes, including murders committed by prisoners released after returning from the front.

Earlier this month, the Kremlin acknowledged that prisoners were being sent to the front during this war, but said that those convicted could “atone for their crime with blood on the battlefield.”