"Die of AIDS or enlist"... Russia also mobilizes 'HIV-positive' prisoners

As the number of troops deployed in the Ukraine war dwindled, the Russian government reportedly enlisted a large number of prisoners, including murderers, drug offenders, and those who tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

During this process, there were testimonies that the Russian government intimidated HIV-positive prisoners by threatening not to provide effective HIV treatment drugs while they were in prison.

The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 21st (local time), citing Ukrainian government officials, that an estimated 20% of Russian prisoners who participated in the Ukraine war were HIV carriers.

Meanwhile, on the same day, according to the BBC, the Russian Ministry of Defense launched a recruitment campaign, releasing videos urging Russian men to give up civilian jobs and enlist in the military.

The video promised a monthly salary of at least 204,000 rubles (approximately 3.34 million won), which is four times the Russian average. The Russian Ministry of Defense also provoked men by telling them to "become men."

Yevgeny Prigozhin, who leads the Russian mercenary company Wagner Group.
Photo by AP Yonhap News

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In fact, as Russia faced a shortage of troops deployed in the Ukraine war, it toured prisons across the country to recruit prisoners as mercenaries.

Previously, the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as "Vladimir Putin's chef," accepted murderers and drug offenders as soldiers. They also recruited large numbers of Russian prisoners suffering from serious infectious diseases such as HIV infection and hepatitis C.

The NYT introduced testimony from a Russian soldier who was a former prisoner captured in Ukraine. This Russian soldier is HIV positive. He testified that while incarcerated, the prison doctor suddenly stopped administering the existing HIV treatment drugs and switched to a treatment whose effectiveness was questionable.

Sentenced to 10 years and imprisoned, this Russian soldier judged that he could not survive in prison with the newly prescribed treatment. Eventually, he volunteered for the Russian mercenary group Wagner. After serving six months with the Wagner Group, he was pardoned and promised effective HIV treatment drugs.

Having no military experience and receiving only two weeks of basic training before being deployed to the front lines, he was captured as a prisoner of war on the first day of combat.

Treatment center in a Russian penal colony
[Photo by TASS Yonhap News Archive]

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Most of the new Russian prisoner recruits were deployed to the Battle of Bakhmut, the largest battleground in Ukraine. At this time, the Russian military mandated that HIV carriers and hepatitis C carriers among soldiers wear red and white rubber bracelets, respectively, to distinguish them.

The purpose was to make them easily identifiable for treatment on the battlefield, but it was reported that the bracelets were used as marks of discrimination, as medics and others feared they could become infected while treating HIV-positive soldiers wearing the bracelets, resulting in those soldiers not receiving treatment.

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