One of the Ukrainian ex-convicts, who joined into country’s armed forces and is now fighting Russian occupiers, told Reuters that he considers his new job as a chance to change his life and an opportunity to clean his homeland from enemy troops.

“I’m not going off to die. I’m going to serve and change my life,” former car thief Bohdan Filonenko said in response to fellow inmates who criticized his decision to become a soldier.

He is one of thousands of Ukrainian prisoners who enlisted in the Defense Forces under a new law granting them amnesty in exchange for army service as Kyiv implements new options to encourage more men into the Ukrainian Army.

However, the country barred those individuals who were accused of certain offenses, like the murder of two or more people and sexual crimes, from serving.

Another prisoner, Pavlo, signed up the day after the new law was enacted in May 2024.

“Why should some strangers come to my country and destroy my land?” the 46-year-old convict asked the media outlet.

He has already undergone a wound treatment after a Russian drone dropped an explosive near him.

According to the General Prosecutor’s Office, more than 3,000 ex-prisoners had joined various Ukrainian Army units as of July.

Earlier, Ukraine’s Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories announced the launch of a new state project aimed at exchanging convicted collaborationists for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The ministry says the initiative, named “I Want to Go to My Own,” was reported by the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) of the Defense Ministry.

The primary objective of the project is to publicize information about convicted Russian agents, traitors, and collaborators who cooperated with or assisted Russian occupation forces in the war against Ukraine.

Read also:

• 95 Ukrainian prisoners of war return from Russian captivity, including Azovstal defenders
• Relatives of Ukrainian POWs: Russia returns bodies without internal organs during exchanges
• UAE mediates new prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine
• “One cup of water per day for 8 people”: Deaths of Ukrainian POWs in Russian captivity rise, human rights group says