As losses mount, a desperate Russia is preparing to “recruit at least 50,000 convicts” to fight in Ukraine, with the contingent of criminals already reportedly sent to the frontlines including serial killers and a cannibal, according to a Russian analysis.

Human rights activist Olga Romanova, who runs Russia Behind Bars, told the Daily Beast that some of the inmates her group has aided have been discovered in videos fighting in Ukraine.

“Putin’s plan is to recruit at least 50,000 convicts,” she said, adding that close Putin ally oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin has been noticed at Russian prisons where he reportedly promised inmates their release if they serve on the battlefield in Ukraine for six months.

Prigozhin, who is nicknamed “Putin’s chef”, has allegedly shipped over 3,000 inmates to Ukraine. The list includes “serial murderers, robbers and at least one cannibal,” according to Romanova’s statement to the news outlet.

She described the development as out of her “worst nightmares.”

“Originally, Wagner [the private military group run by Prigozhin] grabbed mostly those convicted for homicide … But now, their fishing net takes everybody in, including man-eaters,” Romanova said. “So far we know of one case of recruitment among Russian cannibals.”

“I just spoke with the wife of a serial killer convicted in Kostroma. He was supposed to spend five more years behind bars, but Wagner had freed him, so the wife was terrified he might [come back] and attack her for filing for divorce,” she added. “Out of the first 42 convicts recruited in the first group, only three survived. Out of the second group of 66 convicts, only six returned, including one who had lost his arm.”