More than two-thirds of the Russian soldiers holding the Zaporizhzhia front carry criminal records. Ukraine's "South" grouping says a third of them enlisted to escape prosecution, most are over 30, and no fresh reinforcements are arriving, spokesperson Anastasia Shevchenko told Ukrinform.

The reasons they signed up track with that: 31 percent enlisted to dodge criminal liability, 24 percent for money, 26 percent on ordinary contracts, and 13 percent through mobilization. It is Russia's prison pipeline in a single snapshot, a model that has pulled well over 100,000 inmates into the war with pardons and suspended sentences and thrown many of them at Ukrainian lines in disposable assault waves.

"It is worth noting that 69 percent of the Russian personnel have a criminal record," Shevchenko said.

The model dates to Wagner's prison recruiting in 2022 and has run under the Defense Ministry since.

A middle-aged force holds the line

The men are not young. More than a third, 36 percent, are between 31 and 40; another 24 percent are 41 to 50; 31 percent are 21 to 30; and just 9 percent are 20 or under.

This is a force of grown men with records, not fresh conscripts, and it points to who Russia can still find willing to fight in the south: people with little to lose and a sentence to escape among Ukrainian civilians, women and children.

The prison pipeline runs dry

What Shevchenko did not report is any sign of that force being rebuilt. Russia has enough men and equipment to keep fighting on the Zaporizhzhia front, she says, but no substantial replenishment is coming.

That fits a wider problem for Russia: its supply of convict recruits is thinning as word of the front's lethality spreads through the prisons, with some inmates now signing military contracts only to bolt on the way to the front, in one case killing their escort to get away.

Russia's practice of replenishing its ranks from prisons is breaking down, and officials are resorting to ever more coercive measures to keep the flow going.

Ukraine's National Guard is setting up its own center to recruit foreigners into its ranks. The center will speed up the process of contracting foreign volunteers and deploying them to combat units as part of an experimental project approved by the government, Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi says.

Around 16,000 foreigners from at least 72 countries already serve in the armed forces, according to Defense Post. The new center formalizes that pipeline for the National Guard, home to some of Ukraine's most effective units, including Azov, which is fighting for Donbas right now, and the Khartiia Corps.

Former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov set the ambition higher still, saying in June 2026 that Ukraine wants to fill 30 to 50 percent of its assault and infantry positions with foreigners.

The Guard builds its own pipeline

Until now, foreigners have joined the National Guard through a Defense Ministry recruitment center. To speed things up, the Guard is building its own, which will coordinate the process and walk candidates through every step, from interviews and background checks to training.

"The candidate's path to service should be as fast as possible," Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said, adding that combat units should get their reinforcements more promptly.

Commanders pushed for it

The idea came from the front. Vyhivskyi said National Guard brigade and corps commanders raised it with him during recent trips to frontline regions, and that the center should directly strengthen their combat units.

Foreign recruits are already a fixture of the fight. Large numbers have come from Colombia and across South America, and Colombian volunteers have formed a reconnaissance and assault group within the 47th Mechanized Brigade. Their motivations vary, from combat experience to pay well above what many earn at home, but the effect is the same: extra soldiers for the Ukrainian force.