Recruiting convicts for its army has given Russia a manpower advantage. But it is backfiring in tragic ways when former inmates are pardoned and return home to commit new crimes.
Kyiv hit an oil depot on Friday, the latest in recent attacks on such facilities as it seeks to inflict damage away from the largely deadlocked front line.
The seaport is one of Russia’s largest by volume and among the biggest in Europe, key to the export of Russian grain, oil, and other products to countries around the world.
A dismal, snowy plot near the Black Sea is the final resting place for more and more soldiers from the Wagner mercenary forces, a testament to the huge casualties Russia is suffering in its invasion.