From what I have read, it is mostly criminals, political prisoner and people who protest the war who are being sent to the front. So Putin empties his prisons of the opposition. It doesn’t matter if they fight and die or surrender because he is rid of them either way.
it is mostly criminals, political prisoner and people who protest the war who are being sent to the front.
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The felons were recruited by the Wagner Group - a private army, not by the regular army. It those people do not fight, they will be shot on the spot - they were told before they ‘volunteered’.
Most of the troops are from Central and Far Eastern provinces - few are from the cities.