Russia's criminal soldiers have their own brutal rules.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine was costly in many ways, not least in terms of human casualties. From the first day of the war, the invaders were without manpower. Filling those gaps became part of the task of Wagner Group, a mercenary company with close ties to the Russian government. Its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, began an aggressive, sometimes violent, recruitment process from the country's prisons, offering criminals a chance to go free in exchange for their services. The Russian army followed suit.