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“For Ukrainian Convicts, a Strange Odyssey Through Russian Prisons”

“When Russian troops left Kherson, they took with them 2,500 Ukrainian convicts from local prisons. For some, it was the start of a bewildering, five-country journey highlighting the war’s absurdity.“

“Oleksandr Fedorenko’s odyssey began with a triumph for his native Ukraine.

It was last October, and Ukrainian troops were pressing an offensive that would ultimately liberate the southern city of Kherson. As Russian occupation forces prepared to withdraw, they took with them 2,500 Ukrainian criminals from the city’s jails, including Mr. Fedorenko.

What followed over the next several months was a bizarre journey that took some of the convicts more than 4,000 miles through five prisons and five countries.
“We were received with shouts, beatings, humiliations,” said Mr. Fedorenko, 47, who had been serving time in Kherson for theft, describing his introduction to a Russian-controlled prison. “Face to the ground, don’t look, don’t speak, and blows, blows, blows.”

The Russians’ behavior befuddled the convicts from the start, with no one, including apparently their new jailers, having much of an idea what to do with them.

First, the prisoners were left largely to their own devices in their Ukrainian jails. Then they were unexpectedly, and with no explanation, shipped to Russian-controlled territory. But nothing underscored their haphazard treatment better than what happened when some of them reached the end of their original sentences.

The convicts were pleasantly surprised when Russian guards came to escort them out of jail when their sentences expired. But at the prison’s entrance, a bigger shock awaited: Some were immediately detained again by the Russian police and accused of violating immigration laws; they were fined and charged with illegally entering the country.“

https://archive.ph/iLopd