Storm-Z

• 1. Introduction

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  To reach food and water in Storm-Z forward positions required a five-kilometer walk through a minefield. That account came from Russian prisoners of war captured by Ukrainian forces. Their testimony, along with documents seized on the 6th of April 2023, revealed how Russia had been assembling penal military units from its prison population. British intelligence and Russian military bloggers both tracked Storm-Z through some of the war's most brutal engagements. The Russian state eventually legislated the program out of existence, though commanders continued reporting Storm-Z units in the field months later.

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• 2. Assembling the Units

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  The Russian Ministry of Defence modeled Storm-Z directly on the convict recruitment method that Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group had pioneered. Convicts who volunteered were promised two things: a deduction from their prison sentence and a monthly wage of $2,200. The Institute for the Study of War assessed that these units would be attached to Russian forces already depleted by sustained combat.

  Each Storm-Z company was organized around 100 soldiers, divided into eight functional groups. Four capture squads and four fire support squads each contained 10 personnel. Supporting elements included a 5-person combat engineering group, an 8-person reconnaissance team, a 3-person medevac group, and a 2-person UAV crew. A 2-person command element oversaw the whole company. Before deployment, soldiers received only 10 to 15 days of training. Their initial assignments were in urban combat, primarily the Battle of Bakhmut and the Battle of Avdiivka.

  British intelligence noted that Russian commanders used Storm-Z as a punishment posting. Soldiers caught using drugs or alcohol, or those who showed general disobedience, could be transferred to a penal unit. Their first deployments included the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army and the 1st Army Corps, the armed forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. According to both British intelligence and Russian military bloggers, Storm-Z sustained between 40 and 70 percent losses attempting to capture Avdiivka.

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• 3. Under Fire

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  Three Storm-Z prisoners of war described their experience to CNN, and their accounts were consistent in the specifics. Artillery routinely malfunctioned. Rockets fell inaccurately. Commanders, some of them under the influence of painkillers, gave what the prisoners described as "nonsensical orders."

  During the opening phase of the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive, a large contingent of penal soldiers and draftees surrendered during the Battle of Velyka Novosilka. The units had low morale, and Storm-Z soldiers consistently took any chance to surrender to Ukrainian forces. The Velyka Novosilka prisoners confirmed that veteran Russian formations sat behind the penal units, acting as barrier troops. Those troops had orders to shoot anyone who tried to retreat or surrender. A Ukrainian drone later captured footage of Russian forces opening fire on their own retreating troops.

  Storm-Z was also deployed along the Svatove-Kreminna line, conducting attacks that observers described as highly attritional. The 76th and 98th Guards Airborne Divisions served as barrier forces behind them in that sector. Along the east bank of the Dnipro, Storm-Z was used to counter the Ukrainian river crossing at Krynky. Assaults of 10 to 15 soldiers were launched against Ukrainian positions repeatedly for months. Hundreds of convicts died there due to a lack of armor, air support, and artillery coverage. Russian command eventually ran out of Storm-Z units to deploy in that sector.

  At the Battle of Neskuchne, the 60th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade used Storm-Z to reinforce its defenses. They faced an attack by Ukraine's 129th Territorial Defense Brigade. Russian forces outnumbered their opponents even before the penal reinforcements arrived, but Ukraine liberated the village by the 11th of June 2023. Oleg Sinyegubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, later reported that Storm-Z had been deployed to Belgorod Oblast following the 2023 incursions there. The assignment was described as a "demonstrative action" to deter further cross-border raids.

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• 4. The Wagner Rebellion

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  When Yevgeny Prigozhin launched his rebellion against the Russian military hierarchy, several Storm-Z units declared their loyalty to the Wagner Group. They vowed to help him topple the command structure. Prigozhin halted his armed column just short of Moscow and ended the mutiny. Those same Storm-Z units turned on him immediately. They accused him of "cowardice" and stated he had "double-crossed them."

  Storm-Z commanders began issuing punishments to units identified as loyal to Wagner following the uprising. Overseeing the entire program was Colonel General Yevgeni Burdinskiy, head of the General Staff's Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate. Russian nationalist commentators had been harshly critical of Burdinskiy for his inability to account for the full scope of units under his authority. Storm Gladiator, a specialized assault unit within the Storm-Z framework, was established in September 2023 as Russia launched limited counterattacks in eastern Ukraine.

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• 5. Storm Gladiator

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  Storm Gladiator had been one of many battalion-sized Storm-Z units before its performance drew notice. The unit stood out for the physical fitness of its members and their loyalty to the Russian Ministry of Defence. Dmitry Knayev was a captured Gladiator member who gave a statement on the 5th of February 2024. He reported that the unit was trained by both the rebranded Wagner Group and Akhmat special forces. Knayev also described the selection process: candidates were screened for physical condition, unmarried status, and prior military or law enforcement experience.

  Colonel Aslan Shurdumov commanded the unit as part of the 58th Guards Combined Arms Army, having been arrested for murder in 2013. The man who organized Gladiator, Vladislav Olensky, was an FSB agent arrested for extortion in 2012. During the Battle of Robotyne, Gladiator used other Storm-Z companies as its own barrier forces. Captured members reported up to 60 percent fatalities in the autumn of 2023. The unit was disbanded shortly into that winter. Its surviving members were distributed across other Storm-Z formations as veteran officers. The program signed into law in June 2023 to replace Storm-Z had stripped away the central promise made to convicts: a pardon at service's end.

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• 6. Reckoning

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  Vladimir Putin described Storm-Z soldiers in a single word: "meat." Survivor accounts were consistent with that assessment. Storm-Z members reported receiving no meaningful combat training before deployment. At best, they were handed old surplus equipment, and most died in their first engagements.

  Families of killed convicts reported that the Russian Ministry of Defence refused to hand over bodies or personal belongings. Officers were alleged to execute members who protested conditions or tried to organize for basic rations and equipment. Survivors reported being denied the pay and benefits that recruitment had promised them.

  On the 24th of June 2023, Putin signed the legislation that formally disbanded Storm-Z and replaced it with Storm-V. The critical difference was in the terms. Storm-Z had promised convicts a sentence reduction and eventual pardon; Storm-V promised only a return to prison. As of mid-April 2024, Mediazona and the BBC had identified and confirmed 1,910 deaths among Storm-Z and Storm-V convicts. In February 2024, Dmytro Riumshyn, commander of Ukraine's 47th Mechanized Brigade, reported on the situation in Avdiivka. His report described regular Russian troops, sabotage groups, and both Storm-Z and Storm-V penal units all operating there together.

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