Reuters: Stalin's penal battalions have returned to the Russian army

The Storm Z unit, which is partly made up of ex-prisoners, has become a way of punishing Russian soldiers who have committed offenses in the war in Ukraine.

Source. Reuters writes about this with reference to 13 interlocutors, including five military officers.

The Storm Z soldiers are used as assault aircraft in the most difficult areas of the front. The agency calls this practice "an echo of Stalin's time." Reuters became the first major international media outlet to prove the existence of punitive battalions in the Russian army.

The Storm Z penalty units consist of approximately 100-150 people and are part of the regular units of the Russian army. Due to the fact that Storm Z fighters are fighting in the most difficult parts of the frontline, they suffer the greatest losses, Reuters writes.

Among the offenses for which they are sent to Storm Z are alcohol, drugs, and refusal to obey orders. One Russian military officer told the agency that those caught with alcohol on their breath are sent to Storm Z.

"Assault units are just meat," a soldier from a unit stationed near Bakhmut told the agency. He claims to have provided medical aid to a group of six or seven wounded Storm Z fighters, disobeying an order from his commander to leave them on the battlefield.

According to him, he does not know why the commander gave this order, but he believes it is a sign that officers consider the lives of Storm Z fighters less valuable than other soldiers.

"If the commandants catch someone smelling of alcohol, they immediately send them to Storm-Z," he said.

Few Storm Z fighters survive, the sources told Reuters. The Conflict Intelligence Team also told the agency that Storm Z units are sent to the most dangerous parts of the frontline, both on defense and offense.

One fighter, convicted of theft and recruited from a penal colony, said that all but 15 of the 120 men in his unit were killed or wounded in the fighting near Bakhmut in June.

According to Russian law, a soldier can be transferred to a penal unit only after being convicted by a military court, Reuters notes. At the same time, none of the agency's interlocutors mentioned participating in the hearings.

In March 2023, Storm Z soldiers recorded a video message in which they said that barrier squads were set up against them and did not let them leave their positions. The Guardian journalists identified the people in the video. After the video was released, two soldiers fled the unit, while the rest were interrogated by the military prosecutor's office, the Astra telegram channel wrote.