We mustnāt antagonise the powerful Russians!
The Russians are bombing their own now lads.
Sure thatās literally how Putin came to power. Bombed his own people as a false flag to blame on the Chechens.
When you know that Putin bombed his own people it starts to make sense as to why @glenshane and @Thomas_Brady love him so much.
Russia-UkraineWar
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āA Quick Death or a Slow Deathā: Prisoners Choose War to Get Lifesaving Drugs
An estimated 20 percent of Russia prisoner recruits are H.I.V. positive. To some, the front lines seemed less risky than prisons where they said they were denied effective treatments.
Image
Russian prisoners were recruited to fight in the war against Ukraine, many of them offered pardons and a promise of anti-viral medications if they agreed to fight.Creditā¦Nicole Tung for The New York Times
Andrew reported from Dnipro, Ukraine, interviewing Russian soldiers from prisoner units in Ukrainian detention centers.
April 21, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET
In Russian prisons, they said they were deprived of effective treatments for their H.I.V. On the battlefield in Ukraine, they were offered hope, with the promise of anti-viral medications if they agreed to fight.
It was a recruiting pitch that worked for many Russian prisoners.
About 20 percent of recruits in Russian prisoner units are H.I.V. positive, Ukrainian authorities estimate based on infection rates in captured soldiers. Serving on the front lines seemed less risky than staying in prison, the detainees said in interviews with The New York Times.
āConditions were very harshā in Russian prison, said Timur, 37, an H.I.V.-positive Russian soldier interviewed at a detention site in the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine, and identified only by a first name, worried that he would face retaliation if he returned to Russia in a prisoner swap.
After he was sentenced to 10 years for drug dealing, the doctors in the Russian prison changed the anti-viral medication he had been taking to control H.I.V. to types he feared were not effective, Timur said.
He said he did not think he could survive a decade in Russian prison with H.I.V. In December, he agreed to serve six months in the Wagner mercenary group in exchange for a pardon and supplies of anti-viral medications.
āI understood I would have a quick death or a slow death,ā he said of choosing between poor H.I.V. treatment in prison and participating in assaults in Russiaās war in Ukraine. āI chose a quick death.ā
The State of the War
- Buying Into Russian Propaganda: A year into the war, some people in eastern Ukrainian still confound officials and the police with their support for Moscow despite the constant bombardment from Russian forces.
- NATO: With Finland now officially in the fold of the organization, the Biden administration is turning its attention to Sweden, another long-neutral nation that now wants to join the military alliance.
- A Common Front: The foreign ministers of the Group of 7 nations closed a three-day meeting in Japan with a forceful statement of unity against new assertiveness by both Russia and China.
- Evan Gershkovich: The Wall Street Journal reporter, who was arrested in Russia on suspicion of espionage, declared his innocence at a hearing in Moscow, in his first public appearance since his detention. The judge denied Gershkovichās appeal to lift his pretrial detention.
Image
An advertising screen promoting the Wagner group that reads āJoin the winning team!ā on an apartment building in Moscow in April.Creditā¦Kirill Kudryavtsev/Agence France-Presse ā Getty Images
Timur had no military experience and was provided two weeks of training before deployment to the front, he said. He was issued a Kalashnikov rifle, 120 bullets, an armored vest and a helmet for the assault. Before sending the soldiers forward, he said, commanders ārepeated many times, āif you try to leave this field, we will shoot you.āā
Soldiers in his platoon, he said, were sent on a risky assault, waves of soldiers with little chance of survival sent into battle on the outskirts of the eastern city of Bakhmut. Most were killed on their first day of combat. Timur was captured.
Units of former prisoners have made up the bulk of forces in Russiaās attack on Bakhmut, one of the bloodiest and longest-running battles in the war. Beginning on a wide scale last summer, inmates were promised pardons for going into combat.
Those with H.I.V. or hepatitis C were forced to identify their status in a very public manner.
When captured by Ukrainian soldiers, many wore red or white rubber wristbands, or both, signifying they had either disease, both widespread in the Russian prison system. They were made to wear the wristbands ostensibly as a warning to other soldiers in case they were wounded, although they would not necessarily be infectious if properly medicated.
Anti-viral medication can indefinitely treat H.I.V. and suppress the virus to the point where an individual is not infectious. Ukraine allows those who are H.I.V. positive to serve in combat roles with approval from their commanders. The United States does not allow people who are H.I.V. positive to enlist, but lets soldiers who become infected continue to serve while receiving treatment.
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āIf a person is in treatment, and continues treatment, the virus can be undetectable and he can serve, he can work and is not dangerous to those around him,ā said Dr. Iryna Dizha, a medical adviser to 100 Percent Life, an H.I.V. advocacy group in Ukraine.
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Units of former prisoners have made up the bulk of forces in Russiaās attack on Bakhmut, one of the bloodiest and longest-running battles in the war.Creditā¦Sergey Shestak/Agence France-Presse ā Getty Images
The wristbands pose a risk to those wearing them. They are intended to protect other soldiers from infection if the wearer suffers a bloody battlefield wound, the prisoners of war said. Reluctance of fellow soldiers or medics to be exposed to the blood, however, could delay first aid.
Another H.I.V.-positive prisoner of war who fought in the Wagner group, Yevgeny, said that he had suffered a gunshot wound a month before his capture by Ukrainian forces, according to a videotaped interrogation by Ukraineās domestic intelligence agency that was reviewed by The Times. He had received timely medical help despite wearing a red bracelet, he said, but was treated in a hospital where he felt doctors were careless about infecting other patients.
āThere were no conditions for the H.I.V. infected,ā he said. āWe were all treated together, the healthy and the unhealthy.ā
And in the chaos of battle the bracelets serve little purpose, said Vadim, 31, who was convicted of robbery and served in Wagner before being captured in a bunker.
After Ukrainian soldiers tossed several hand grenades into the bunker, the Russian soldiers, including two who were H.I.V. positive, hunkered in a corner. Three of 10 soldiers in the bunker were killed and most others wounded, Vadim said. He emerged splattered with blood. āI was always afraid of this disease,ā he said in an interview at a Ukrainian detention site. After the exposure, he tested negative.
Since the summer, about 50,000 prisoners have signed up to fight in Ukraine, roughly 10 percent of the incarcerated population, according to Russia Behind Bars, a nongovernmental group monitoring Russian prisons.
Ukraineās military intelligence agency said in a statement last fall that some captured soldiers had H.I.V. and hepatitis C. The domestic intelligence agency has made available videos of interrogations with Wagner prisoners of war describing H.I.V. infection and showing red bracelets. The Ukrainian authorities provide anti-viral medicine to H.I.V.-positive prisoners of war.
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Russian recruits at a railway station in Prudboi, Russia, in September. Since the summer, about 50,000 prisoners have signed up to fight in Ukraine.Creditā¦Associated Press
H.I.V., hepatitis C and tuberculosis, including drug-resistant strains, are prevalent in Russian prisons and penal colonies. About 10 percent of Russiaās incarcerated population is H.I.V.-positive, said Olga Romanova, the director of Russia Behind Bars. About a third of the total inmate population has at least one of those three infections, she said.
In interviews, H.I.V.-positive prisoners of war said they were asked only to do push-ups before a recruiter to prove their fitness to serve.
Ruslan, 42, had served one year of an 11-year sentence for drug dealing when he joined Wagner in December. The medications he received in a penal colony were not suppressing the virus, he said, and he feared for his life.
Last year, he had been bedridden for weeks with pneumonia. Ruslan said that after joining Wagner he had a mild bout of pneumonia at a training camp in January. A month later, he was sent on a human wave assault in Bakhmut and was captured.
Ruslan said he welcomed Wagnerās policy of accepting H.I.V.-positive inmates. He said he thought he would die in any case from his illness in prison and accepted the frontline for a chance at freedom and treatment.
āIf you have a long sentence,ā he said, āit gives you a chance to begin life again.ā
Andrew E. Kramer is the Times bureau chief in Kyiv. He was part of a team that won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for a series on Russiaās covert projection of power. @AndrewKramerNYT
Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine
- The Future of Ukraine: The European Union and NATO have promised a path to membership for the country. But real partnership will hold risks and benefits.
- Western Companies: Hundreds of Western businesses are still in Russia. Some say Moscow has tied their hands, while others have chosen to stay put.
- Defying Isolation: After the invasion of Ukraine, the West tried to cut Russia off from the rest of the world. Here is why it didnāt work.
- A Wartime Partnership: The alliance between President Biden and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has become critical to the world order.
- Zelenskyās Rise: The Ukrainian president, once brushed off as a political lightweight, has become a household name, representing his countryās tenacity.
- Ukrainiansā Texts: The messages that Ukrainians wrote to loved ones as Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022, are a snapshot of a turning point in modern history.
How We Verify Our Reporting
- Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs, videos and radio transmissions to independently confirm troop movements and other details.
- We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts.
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Thatās hilarious
Itās fairly simple. The Ukrainians are fighting for their county and their futures. I donāt understand the idea they should fold. Putin will probably wipe them out regardless.
1 Like
Heās sending HIV riddled zombies into Ukraine. Itās end of world stuff.
No offence meant to the young fellow but I donāt think heād make an ideal soldier.
Heās sick with HIV.
Heās gay. Iāll probably be slated here but do gays make good soldiers?
Heād completely unmotivated.
He only wanted to get captured, he basically surrendered to take his chances on the Ukraine side.
He doesnāt want to go back to Russia.
I donāt think he really chose war. He chose his best bet for life.
Is he gay?
And then you have to factor in the liklihood that he doesnāt exist. A bit of a shit sandwich whatever way you look at it
Do gays make good soldiers? 
fucking hell man what century are you living in
2 Likes
Dont ask, dont tell.
I donāt know, but I doubt it. As @Thomas_Brady says he may not be gay after all.
If you were in the army and given the choice of attacking two buildings. One defended by 10 gay soldiers and one by 10 straight soldiers. All other things being equal.
What building would you attack?
He thinks because he has HIV that heās gay 
Brilliant 
1 Like
The Spartans all took male lovers and were the fiercest of soldiers.
Cu Chulainn was jocking a fella had he was the best irish warrior and hurler that ever lived.
Iām not sure what sexuality has to do with your ability to fight or be a soldier.
You might be confusing homosexuality with feminine malesā¦ Who exist in the heterosexual world too. Even then, Iām not sure how valid your argument holds up
2 Likes
I just asked the question.
You can answer it too if you like.
Both buildings would be equally dangerous to attack you lunatic. Are you suggesting that the gay lads might fancy me and try to ride me instead of kill me?
I think youāre suggesting that?
1 Like
Heād make a fine Aids De Camp