Slaughter of Ghosts: How Russian Prisoners Fight in Ukraine. Documentary

The Russian authorities did not publicize the recruitment of prisoners for the war in Ukraine. But very quickly this experiment grew to such a scale that it became impossible to hide it.

Daniil Belovodyev from Systema (RFE/RL's Russian Investigative Unit) studied several hundred MoD documents and open data, and spoke with participants and witnesses of the events to describe the most complete history of this military project.

Watch the Slaughter of Ghosts documentary

00:00 Intro
02:16 What the film is about
04:07 How assault units emerged in the Russian military
07:54 Where it all started. Putin’s classified decree
12:25 Wagner PMC and the K Project K
19:50 The rise of the Storm-Z initiative
21:42 Recruiting prisoners into assault squads
24:14 Conditions of service
25:56 Where former inmates from Storm-Z were deployed
27:32 Combat tactics: meat-grinder assaults
29:02 “Just bodies to plug holes and die.” He fought alongside convicts
31:32 How commanders trained the prisoners
33:34 Who was behind the Storm-Z project
36:25 Putin’s presidential pardons
37:35 Repeat criminal offenses
38:54 Suicide squads: the mythos of Storm-Z
39:57 The apotheosis of the Storm-Z campaign
41:49 Storm-V and a shift in how ex-cons were treated
45:19 Experimental military formations
46:04 Storm Gladiator. A battalion of “fierce assault troops”
52:06 Akula. From maximum-security prisons and bureaucracy to special forces
54:38 Chernye Bushlaty. Part I
1:05:35 Chernye Bushlaty. Part II