Russian military intelligence oversee the assault companies from the prisoners “Storm Z” participating in the war in Ukraine. This is stated in the investigation of the “System” – the project “Radio Liberty” and “Present Time”. Journalists refer to documents that indicate that the contracts of the concluded have a special secrecy vulture and are stored in a special GRU archive. Information about the dead prisoners was sent by secret mail to the office of the Main Directorate of the General Staff (former GRU). One of the documents signed by the colonel of the 8th Guards Combined Archi of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanov says that “financial security, the production of various payments to volunteers of the assault company (Z) are entrusted to the Moscow military unit 45,807.” The address of the unit is indicated there – Moscow, Khoroshevskoye Shosse, 76b. The headquarters of the GRU is located at the same address, and the commander of part 45 807 is Igor Kostyukov, the head of the GRU. According to the “system”, officially the Storm Z project was launched by decree of the head of the General Staff of February 24, 2023. Then the Ministry of Defense and GRU united the mercenary formations into a single structure – the “volunteer corps”. It included detachments where the fighters served in the status of volunteers. “In February 2023, the GRU secured the status of a curator of almost all the“ volunteer ”units, and Storm Z, apparently, was no exception,” the investigators say. The recruitment of prisoners in the colonies for sending to the war to Ukraine was carried out by Wagner PMCs. After that, the Russian Ministry of Defense took up the likes. “The Russian BBC Service wrote that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation sent the Storm Z forces to participate in the Russian-Ukrainian war on the“ Written Consent ”and without registration with the army. Because of this, the courts do not recognize them as military personnel and refuse payments. In early March 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with employees of the Defender of the Fatherland Foundation said that all war participants in Ukraine should be equal in rights, regardless of how they got to the front. He, in particular, said that the prisoners who went to the war will receive the status of a war veteran. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in the framework of the ZA SVROD program, sent concluded to the war without a contract, the status of volunteers and insurance payments the main thing from the investigation of the Russian BBC service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation as part of the ZA CVDROD program sent for war without a contract, the status of volunteers and insurance payments, the main thing from the investigation of the Russian Bi-Bi-SS service ” (Tagstotranslate) News
