Penal Battalion.

This is coolbert:

There hasn't been anything like this since the time of the Second World War [WW2].

THE PENAL BATTALION. Soviet wartime measure, impressed and forced labor, persons accused of and convicted of a crime made to do hard pick and shovel labor in furtherance of the war effort.

"Ukraine Rebels Conscript ‘Punishment Brigades’ for Support Work"
"DONETSK, Ukraine — With Ukraine’s military tightening a cordon around this city controlled by separatist rebels, Oleg Grishin found himself enlisted on Monday in one of their [separatists] schemes for its defense: the forced labor of drunks, drug addicts and curfew violators to dig trenches and build barriers."
. . . .

"Donetsk, the rebel capital, is now isolated by the siege, which the Ukrainian Army managed to achieve over the weekend."

Soviet soldiers during WW2 guilty quite often of a trifle matter formed into penal battalions and punished in a manner that was tantamount to a death sentence. Participate in ten front assaults or fly ten missions as a tail gunner. The odds of surviving ten assaults or missions near to zero.

These "punishment brigades" obviously not the same as a death sentence. But a strong motivation to behave yourself.

coolbert.