This isn’t the first time we’ve heard reports like this from Russian conscripts. Every few months we get a fresh glimpse at the Russian front lines from individuals who describe the conditions as “absolute f**king hell” or as an ongoing slaughter. The most recent entry of this type comes from an ex-convict named Aleksandr who has been serving in the Russian Army.

Sent to guard against a potential river crossing in southern Ukraine, his hastily formed unit, made up almost entirely of inmates, endured weeks of relentless bombardment, sniper attacks and ambushes. The marshy, flat terrain offered no cover beyond the burned-out hulks of cottages. He said he had watched dogs gnaw at the uncollected corpses of his dead comrades, drunk rain water and scavenged garbage dumps for food.

Aleksandr claims that out of the 120 men in his unit, only about 40 remain alive. These survivors are being heavily pressured by the Russian military to remain on the battlefield at the end of their six-month contracts, according to Aleksandr and accounts provided to The New York Times from two other Russian inmates fighting on the front line.

“We are being sent to a slaughter,” Aleksandr said in a series of audio messages from the Kherson region, referring to his commanders. “We are not human to them, because we are criminals.”

You may remember that last year Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group was allowed to recruit tens of thousands of conscripts from Russia’s prisons. Wagner was eventually cut off from recruiting more prisoners in one of the first signs (in February) that Prigozhin was falling out of favor with Putin. After the march on Moscow, Wagner withdrew from Ukraine but the regular army picked up where Prigozhin left off, offering desperate prisoners six month contracts to fight for their freedom.

But, to no one’s surprise, Aleksandr says the army isn’t living up to most of its commitments to prison recruits. They are supposed to be rotated out after six months and sent home. In fact, they are pressured to remain on the front lines for up to a year after these six months are up. Aleksandr also says the bodies of the dead are not recovered because dead soldiers are guaranteed a payment to their surviving family members while soldiers listed as missing get nothing.

Worst of all, Aleksandr’s unit seemed to be placed in harm’s way with no specific goal in mind except to draw attacks from Ukrainians they have never seen.

They spent the next three and a half weeks under constant bombardment from the invisible enemy, who shelled their exposed positions from across the river and targeted them with snipers and night ambushes. Enemy drones constantly hovered in the air.

The aim of their mission was unclear to them; they were told to simply remain in their positions. They had no heavy weapons and no means to defend themselves against Ukrainian attacks.

“I’m running around with an automatic gun like an idiot. I haven’t made a single shot, I haven’t seen a single enemy,” a former inmate from Aleksandr’s unit named Dmitri, who is now deceased, said in a voice message at the time. “We are just a bait to expose their artillery positions.” The message was shared with The Times by Dmitri’s wife.

Aleksandr was serving a long sentence in prison for murder so I can’t say I feel sorry for him. But not everyone recruited by the army was a murderer and all of them seem to be getting the same treatment.

I do wonder how long Putin can keep this going. Sooner or later he’ll run out of desperate prisoners willing to serve as cannon fodder and then what? His first partial mobilization encouraged more than a million men to flee Russia. Another mobilization would likely produce the same results. Between the people fleeing the country and those sent to the front lines, Russia is facing a significant decline in the number of working age men available to keep the economy going. At some point the bill for this is going to come due. It’s hard to see how Putin will survive another year of continuous failure.