The Daily Beast
How Ukraine Turned Putin’s Own Trick Against Him
KHARKIV, Ukraine—Stuck in a crowded prison cell in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, 45-year-old Viktor faces a choice. He can stay where he is, serving out his sentence in the knowledge that a Russian bomb could hit the jail any day, or he can swap his cell for the dangers of the front lines, as a volunteer defending his country.“Better to go fight with weapons, than sit here,” he tells the Daily Beast.In a tactic borrowed from Vladimir Putin’s playbook, Ukraine has started releasing prisoners for