A disgraced former mayor in Russia has joined the military’s operation in Ukraine to shorten his prison sentence.
Oleg Gumenyuk was convicted last year of accepting bribes worth 38 million roubles (about £338,000), when he was mayor of the far eastern city and cultural hub of Vladivostok, between 2018 and 2021.
He was jailed for 12 years, but has now been released as part of a contract to fight for Russia, local media has reported.
Gumenyuk’s whereabouts are currently unknown, Gumenyuk’s lawyer Andrei Kitaev told the outlet Kommersant.
But he added that the politician was instructed to report to his military unit on December 22.
Local officials for the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Primorsky region, where the former mayor was held, did not confirm the reports.
Photos circulating on social media show a man resembling Gumenyuk carrying a gun while being surrounded by other servicemen.
MORE AND MORE CRIMINALS IN UKRAINE
— 🇺🇦 paolo rel (@paolobucci18) January 14, 2024
Former Vladivostok mayor Oleg Gumenyuk, convicted of bribery, left the colony for "SVO"
The former head of the capital of Primorye Oleg Gumenyuk, instead of serving his court-ordered sentence in a colony for bribery, went on a so-called “special… pic.twitter.com/MxArHtwIUa
Russia has gone to extraordinary lengths to replenish its troops in Ukraine, including deploying thousands of prisoners directly from the country's jails. Inmates who sign up for six months on the frontline are pardoned upon their return.
It is not the first time that authorities have used such a tactic, with the Soviet Union employing "prisoner battalions" during the Second World War.
On Sunday, shelling continued with a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of s, injuring six people, the region's military administration said.
Four firefighters were also hurt after a drone hit a fire station in the wider Kherson region.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike injured one at the Russian border village of Tetkino, Kursk region governor Roman Starovoyt said on social media.
It comes as foreign policy advisers from Western countries met in the Swiss town of Davos on Sunday, to push Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's peace proposals, ahead of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting starting on Tuesday.
On Monday, the Kremlin said the talks would achieve nothing as Russia is refusing to participate.
Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “This is simply talking for the sake of talking.
“This process cannot be aimed at achieving any specific results for the obvious reason - we are not participating. Without our participation, any discussions are devoid of any prospect of any results."
Mr Zelensky's 10-point peace plan calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities and the restoration of Ukraine's state borders with Russia.
Ukraine, which has decreed that any talks with Russia are illegal, says it will not rest until every Russian soldier is ejected from its territory.
