The botched counteroffensive has caused the Kiev regime a serious shortage of human resources for mobilization, not to mention growing questions from Kiev's Western allies and donors as to what they are actually providing money and weapons for.
Fear of Death
In 2021, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine initiated 117 criminal cases for desertion. Another 2,028 cases were classified as "unauthorized leaving of a military unit or place of service," meaning that individuals left their units with the intention of returning. In addition, there were 33 cases of self-inflicted injuries.
A destroyed tank of Ukrainian Armed Forces is seen outside the town of Severodonetsk, in Lugansk People's Republic.
© Sputnik / Valery Melnikov
/ In the first nine months of this year, 4,638 soldiers deserted from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 10,940 temporarily left service, and there were 161 cases of self-harm. Deserters face sentences of five to eight years in prison. In some instances, these cases often end with a pretrial agreement and a suspended sentence.
Ukrainian prisons are currently holding at least a few brigades of deserters. Their motive is clear: fear of death. Local media reported that a Russian missile destroyed several dozen soldiers in their barracks. One survivor fled, taking his rifle with him. His friends say he surrendered as a PoW. Nevertheless, he was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Another soldier left his position after it was shelled, but returned later. He was sent to a military psychiatrist. He did not fully recover, disappeared again, then was arrested and sentenced to 2.5 years in prison.
Another deserter admitted in court that he feared for his life during the attack on Liman. According to him, the operation was poorly planned and lacked fire support. Sentence: five years. Some try to flee abroad. In July, a deserter was caught on the border with Romania. He was also sentenced to five years.
A serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who surrendered in Mariupol, in the Novoazovsky Central District Hospital. Hospital doctors provided medical assistance to the prisoner.
© Sputnik / Ilya Pitalev
/ They are also sent to penal battalions. This is not widely publicized, but it happens. At the front, however, they only trust those who surrendered at the first opportunity, and now they are only assigned to construction work.
‘Psychological Support’
Officers are punished for the desertion of subordinates. Therefore, if a soldier declares that he would rather go to jail than face bullets, he will be kept in the rear.
However, fatigue from the fighting is mounting for everyone. Losses are enormous and finding replacements are problematic. Many combat units are 30-40 percent short of personnel. Almost everywhere, there are hidden desertions. Soldiers, sergeants, and officers feign illness and try to stay at headquarters and in rear units - anything to avoid the front lines.
And then "psychologists" rush to help, complaining that many people live by the principle "see no evil, hear no evil," so the state should intensify propaganda.
At First Opportunity
"A relative of mine survived near Artemovsk (Bahmut). After another massacre, in which most of the troops perished, he quarreled with the commander. A criminal case was opened. The lawyer suggested a psychiatric examination. The soldier escaped from the hospital to Romania and then to Germany. But he had $ 5,000 to get there. Those without money hide with relatives or friends. It's a worse situation — they won't even let you see a doctor without a certificate from the military enlistment center," Ukrainian Vladimir Bespalko told Sputnik.
He served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2016-2017, and even then there were desertions, with 10 percent in his platoon. The problem was that at the time, there were no more volunteers, and those who were mobilized did not want to go to the zone of the Anti-Terrorist Operation. But the problem was hushed up. Bespalko does not rule out that the authorities are still playing down the statistics of the losses.
"Many go missing without a trace, and they don't report them in time because they continue to receive their salaries. If a soldier deserts but doesn't take his bank card with him, they usually don't report him either. Besides, if you report it, you will be criticized: how could you let it happen, why didn't you stop him?" the former soldier explained.
20 November 2023, 08:09 GMT
Another former Ukrainian serviceman, Anton Amosov, notes that there are many well-educated and successful people among the mobilized. But they are commanded by illiterate officers who often suffer from alcoholism.
"They put you in a unit with an idiot, and your first thought is: why should I obey him? In the beginning, there were lines of volunteers at the draft office. Now there are no volunteers. The first to be mobilized have been at the front for two years and are going crazy," he said.
"No one is shouting 'For the Motherland' anymore. Instead, they ask: whose motherland is it? Of course, there is hatred against the Russians, which is cultivated by the authorities. But at the same time there is a growing lack of understanding of what the ruling elite is doing."
No wonder they call mobilization “utilization,” Sputnik's source added. If a person has a chance to avoid the army, they will take it, and no one will blame them for it.