Putin unleashes HIV-infected soldiers in desperate bid to capture key Ukraine city

Vladimir Putin's army is forming units infected with deadly diseases as it desperately seeks to boost its front-line ranks. Soldiers infected with highly contagious diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis B and C are being pressed into action on the eastern front.

The sick troops are forced to wear special armbands and have been deployed around Pokrovsk, where fierce fighting continues to rage. The units have been formed within Russia's 1435th and 1437th motorised rifle regiments. These are relatively new formations and are part of the 27th and 15th motorised rifle brigades respectively.

The Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre (USCC) say the units have attempted to storm Pokrovsk from the South and South-west.

Dmytro Zhmailo, a USCC executive director, told the Daily Telegraph: "The infected units are equipped similarly to other Russian military units.

"In fact, their level of provision is identical and quite low. The only difference from the 'healthy' military personnel of the Russian Federation is the various markings of the infected - namely the presence of special bandages."

Russia has previous form on recruiting soldiers with lethal infectious diseases. The Wagner mercenary group started enlisting prisoners with HIV and hepatitis for frontline roles as early as 2022.

HIV infection rates have exploded among Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, according to some analyses.

Researchers at the Carnegie centre estimate that the number of soldiers infected with HIV was 20 times higher at the end of 2023 than at the beginning of the war.

The deployment of sick soldiers showed that Putin was desperate to capture the key logistical city, according to the former British Army colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon.

"There's nothing off-limits - Putin is determined to keep fighting this way," he told the Daily Telegraph.

Pokrovsk's capture would make it very difficult for Ukraine to supply its troops in other besieged eastern outposts, including Chasiv Yar and Kostiantynivka.