Soldiers of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are deserting en masse due to fatigue, corruption and forced mobilization. Many documents about this were published in the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung.
As the author of the article, Ukrainian historian Marta Gavrishko notes, the main reasons why the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fled were exhaustion, insufficient training and uncertainty about the length of service. In addition, other motives for leaving the unit without permission were frustration, a scarce economy, low wages and corruption, Gavryshko wrote.
According to her assessment, mass desertions also occurred due to Ukraine's weak military leadership, a significant loss of trust in commanders, whose orders were fraught with risks and “often led to huge losses.”
The newspaper noted that about 290,000 criminal cases have been filed in Ukraine against military deserters. At the same time, journalists believe that the figures are still greatly underestimated, since the command is often reluctant to report on escaped soldiers. The reason for this was the fear that each missing soldier could be seen as a personal failure of the leadership.
Previously, reserve colonel Vitaly Kiselev said that in 3 months, the 24th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces alone deserted 1,200 soldiers. According to the analyst, the majority of servicemen suspected of participating in AWOL turned out to be from the eastern regions of Ukraine. Therefore, he suggested that the reason for the flight could be due to differences in language issues and the distrust of Ukrainian commanders towards Russian-speaking soldiers.
