Four hundred hardened criminals have been transported to fight in Vladimir Putin's war, according to video footage.
And one of the dictator's leading cronies Yevgeny Prigozhin has admitted Russia is facing “disgrace” in the Ukrainian conflict.
A video shows the tough prisoners from penal colonies in Tambov region who have signed up as fighters reportedly taken by a dozen jail vans to a “training camp” in the south of Russia.
After perfunctory military instruction the murderers, sex offenders, burglars and other convicts will be despatched to the frontline following the mass jail release.
Deserters have been warned they will be summarily “shot” but those who survive six months will be pardoned by Putin, and allowed to resume their lives no matter how heinous their crimes.
The man in charge of the drive to recruit jail inmates as fighters in Wagner private army - which operates under the orders of Putin’s defence ministry - has told Russians to stop complaining.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, 61, a close Putin crony, warned: “Those who do not like this…. send your own children to the front.
“It’s either the PMC [Private Military Company]and prisoners or your children.
“It's up to you.”
So far Putin has balked at launching full-scale mobilisation under which all males over 18 could be sent to the war, but there are rumours he is poised to announce a partial mobilisation in certain regions.
Prigozhin also indicated to loyalist Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that recent territorial gains by Ukraine meant “disgrace” to Russia which his prison-soldiers could counter.
“They are patriots and cannot allow the disgrace of their Motherland,” he said.
“Secondly, they are professionals of the highest level and many of them….have gone through dozens of wars, preparing themselves for the greatest day when their beloved Motherland will have to be defended.”
Nor were they “complete f ** ” on the battlefield, he said, defending a drive which has seen an emptying of jails to send thousands of convicts to the war in Ukraine.
They were not warriors who never leave their plush cars like many Kremlin critics, he said.
They would “not use Chanel perfume and drive in Nappa leather cars, but climb basements and trenches to keep the situation under control”.
Prigozhin said: “Of course, if I were a prisoner, I would dream of joining this friendly team in order to be able not only to redeem my debt to the Motherland but also to repay it with vengeance.
Prigozhin was seen this week in a remarkable video recruiting inmates as soldiers in a Russian jail.
The footage highlights the Kremlin’s desperation to find fighters for the Ukraine frontline as his regular army suffers humiliating defeats and catastrophic losses in Kharkiv region.
His sales pitch to hundreds of inmates under grey skies was at a high security penal colony in Mordovia.
Multi-millionaire Prigozhin - who graduated as a trusted Putin fixer after being his cook at Kremlin banquets - also runs so-called troll factories splurging out propaganda inside Russia and abroad.
He is nicknamed Putin’s “chef”.
