Russia's Defense Ministry has been recruiting female prisoners for military service in Ukraine since 2024, according to an investigation by the independent outlet Verstka. Recruiters offered convicts a one-year contract, a salary starting at 220,000 rubles (about $2,400), and the expungement of their criminal records, but many women on the ground faced sexual abuse and extortion.
The program, called "Vybor" (Choice), sent its first batch of women to the south of Russia in early 2024 without any selection or training. According to a source cited by Verstka, this group quickly suffered losses from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, drug addiction, and internal conflicts; the survivors were reassigned as medical orderlies in rear hospitals.
One orderly said that the first battalion commander told the women he could keep them at the hospital, but they would have to come to him at night. Some agreed, only to later learn that the officer had no authority over their assignments.
In the fall of 2024, recruiters visited a penal colony in the village of Bozoy, Irkutsk region. They formed an experimental medical unit from 73 convicts and, just before New Year, sent them to the 370th medical battalion in the Luhansk region. Among them was 37-year-old Lyudmila Poltarakova, a master of sports in arm wrestling who was serving a 14-year sentence for drug trafficking.
Poltarakova told a military investigator that the commander of the 12th Tank Regiment, Sergei Zhitkov (call sign Oskol), raped her from February to March 2025, summoning her under the pretext of a "sports massage." In April, she said, he demanded that women be sent to "service" a visiting division commander. Other orderlies also spoke of harassment and threats: 23-year-old Darya Chirukhina said she was denied treatment for diabetes and forced to sign a waiver of medical care.
Poltarakova, whom fellow soldiers say carried more than 300 wounded from the battlefield and was herself wounded twice, went public with her story in June 2026 on a pro-war Telegram channel. She also claimed to have witnessed the death of a sergeant major who refused to collect 300,000 rubles from soldiers; she alleged that a platoon commander planted an explosive device on his quad bike. The officer denied the accusations and called her a "pathological liar." After the publication, Poltarakova was issued a citation.
On June 30, she filed a rape complaint with the deputy military prosecutor of the First Tank Army. At the time of the report, Poltarakova was on the front line and faced a criminal case for refusing to carry out an order to go on a combat mission. No rape case was opened, and Zhitkov was promoted in 2025 to acting commander of the Kantemirovskaya Division.
A source close to the Federal Penitentiary Service told Verstka that a third recruitment of female convicts in Irkutsk colonies was halted on sudden orders from above, and the program was deemed unsuccessful. In July, the Russian government submitted a bill to the State Duma expanding the list of criminal code articles under which convicts can sign contracts with the Defense Ministry. Putin signed it in early August.