About a fifth of recruits sent to fight in Ukraine from Russian prisons are HIV positive.
According to The Insider, information provides by Ukrainian authorities, claims Russian soldiers were promised life-saving anti-viral medications if they agreed to fight.
One detainee told The Times that he took the offer to fight in Ukraine because the Russian prison system deprived him of supplies of effective medications that he needed to survive.
Timur, 37, told the publication that in prison he was put on HIV medications that he feared were ineffective, and that he worried that he wouldn’t survive on these treatments for the duration of his sentence.
He was identified only by his first name in order to avoid retaliation if he returned to Russia.
While anti-viral treatments don’t cure HIV, they can reduce viral loads, making people less susceptible to illness caused by a weakened immune system.
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