On May 17, 2022, the Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Malyuska on the air of the "UA telethon" (a single television program for all news Ukrainian TV channels) said that 363 criminals were pardoned in Ukraine, who took up arms and went to the front: https://www.google .com.ua/amp/s/focus.ua/uk/amp/voennye-novosti/515870-363-ukrainskih-zaklyuchennyh-ushli-na-front-after-voyny-oni-budut-svobodny-ministr-yusticii.

As early as February 28, Zelensky said that people with military experience would be released from prisons and places of pre-trial detention in Ukraine, they would be given weapons, and they would "redeem themselves" by defending Kyiv.

Serhiy Torbin, the organizer of the murder of activist Kateryna Handziuk, who was sentenced to 6.5 years, was released from Ukrainian prisons in this way.

He was allowed to form a group of 10 prisoners of his own choosing.

Also, a former soldier of the 72nd brigade of the armed forces of Ukraine Dmitry Balabukha was released. In 2018, at a bus stop, he killed a man who made a remark to Balabukha.

The court sentenced Balabukha to 9 years in prison.

Also released was the former commander of the ultra-right battalion "Donbass" and former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Semyon Semenchenko (real name - Konstantin Grishin).

He was arrested on suspicion of creating an illegal armed group - a private military company.

Also, Semenchenko - Grishin is suspected of smuggling and organizing a terrorist act - a shot from a grenade launcher on the premises of the television company Channel 112 (prohibited by Zelensky's decree).

Semenchenko’s criminal case was submitted to court in December 2021, the verdict has not yet been issued.

Semenchenko said that he was going to create an assault detachment on the basis of one of the military units of the armed forces of Ukraine.

Earlier, he promised to make the Donbass "deserted".

Also at large was the former commander of the battalion "Tornado" Ruslan Onishchenko.

This battalion took part in the fighting against the Donetsk People's Republic.

In 2015, Onishchenko and other Tornado members were arrested for torture, kidnapping, looting, and rape.

The court sentence for Onishchenko is 11 years in prison.

Minister of Justice Malyuska also said that those prisoners who want to fight the invaders will be pardoned, and after the war they will be finally released.