Desertion threatens to starve Ukraine’s forces at a crucial time

Desertion is starving the Ukrainian army of desperately needed manpower and crippling its battle plans at a crucial time in its war with Russia, which could put Kyiv at a clear disadvantage in future ceasefire talks.

Facing every imaginable shortage, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops, tired and bereft, have walked away from combat and front-line positions to slide into anonymity, according to soldiers, lawyers and Ukrainian officials. Entire units have abandoned their posts, leaving defensive lines vulnerable and accelerating territorial losses, according to military commanders and soldiers.

Some take medical leave and never return, haunted by the traumas of war and demoralized by bleak prospects for victory . Others clash with commanders and refuse to carry out orders, sometimes in the middle of firefights.

“This problem is critical,” said Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Kyiv-based military analyst. “This is the third year of war, and this problem will only grow.”

Although Moscow has also been dealing with desertions, Ukrainians going AWOL have laid bare deeply rooted problems bedeviling their military and how Kyiv is managing the war , from the flawed mobilization drive to the overstretching and hollowing out of front-line units. It comes as the U.S. urges Ukraine to draft more troops, and allow for the conscription of those as young as 18.

A shell-shocked Ukrainian soldier of the Azov brigade sits at a stabilization point, September 2024. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

The Associated Press spoke to two deserters, three lawyers, and a dozen Ukrainian officials and military commanders. Officials and commanders spoke on condition of anonymity to divulge classified information, while one deserter did so because he feared prosecution.

“It is clear that now, frankly speaking, we have already squeezed the maximum out of our people,” said an officer with the 72nd Brigade, who noted that desertion was one of the main reasons Ukraine lost the town of Vuhledar in October.

The troops who walk away

More than 100,000 soldiers have been charged under Ukraine’s desertion laws since Russia invaded in February 2022, according to the country’s General Prosecutor’s Office.

Nearly half have gone AWOL in the last year alone, after Kyiv launched an aggressive and controversial mobilization drive that government officials and military commanders concede has largely failed.

It’s a staggeringly high number by any measure, as there were an estimated 300,000 Ukrainian soldiers engaged in combat before the mobilization drive began. And the actual number of deserters may be much higher. One lawmaker with knowledge of military matters estimated it could be as high as 200,000.

Many deserters don’t return after being granted medical leave. Bone-tired by the constancy of war, they are psychologically and emotionally scarred . They feel guilt about being unable to summon the will to fight, anger over how the war effort is being led and frustration that it seems unwinnable.

“Being quiet about a huge problem only harms our country,” said Serhii Hnezdilov, one of few soldiers to speak publicly about his choice to desert. He was charged shortly after the AP interviewed him in September.

Another deserter said he initially left his infantry unit with permission because he needed surgery. By the time his leave was up, he couldn’t bring himself to return.

He still has nightmares about the comrades he saw get killed.

“The best way to explain it is imagining you are sitting under incoming fire and from their (Russian) side, it’s 50 shells coming toward you, while from our side, it’s just one. Then you see how your friends are getting torn to pieces, and you realize that any second, it can happen to you,” he said.

A Ukrainian serviceman fires towards Russian positions using a M777 howitzer at the frontline in Donetsk region, Ukraine, August 2024. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

“Meanwhile guys (Ukrainian soldiers) 10 kilometers (6 miles) away order you on the radio: ‘Go on, brace yourselves. Everything will be fine,’” he said.

Hnezdilov also left to seek medical help. Before undergoing surgery, he announced he was deserting. He said after five years of military service, he saw no hope of ever being demobilized, despite earlier promises by the country’s leadership.

“If there’s no end term (to military service), it turns into a prison — it becomes psychologically hard to find reasons to defend this country,” Hnezdilov said.

A growing problem for Kyiv

Desertion has turned battle plans into sand that slips through military commanders’ fingertips.

The AP learned of cases in which defensive lines were severely compromised because entire units defied orders and abandoned their positions.

“Because of a lack of political will and poor management of troops, especially in the infantry, we certainly are not moving in a direction to properly defend the territories that we control now,” Hnezdilov said.

Ukraine’s military recorded a deficit of 4,000 troops on the front in September owing largely to deaths, injuries and desertions, according to a lawmaker. Most deserters were among recent recruits.

The head of one brigade’s legal service who is in charge of processing desertion cases and forwarding them to law enforcement said he’s had many of them.

“The main thing is that they leave combat positions during hostilities and their comrades die because of it. We had several situations when units fled, small or large. They exposed their flanks, and the enemy came to these flanks and killed their brothers in arms, because those who stood on the positions did not know that there was no one else around,” the official said.

That is how Vuhledar, a hilltop town that Ukraine defended for two years, was lost in a matter of weeks in October, said the 72nd Brigade officer, who was among the very last to withdraw.

The 72nd was already stretched thin in the weeks before Vuhledar fell. Only one line battalion and two rifle battalions held the town near the end, and military leaders even began pulling units from them to support the flanks, the officer said.

There should have been 120 men in each of the battalion’s companies, but some companies’ ranks dropped to only 10 due to deaths, injuries and desertions, he said. About 20% of the soldiers missing from those companies had gone AWOL.

“The percentage has grown exponentially every month,” he added.

Volodymyr, a 51-year-old soldier, smokes near self-propelled artillery howitzer on the front line in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Nov. 7, 2024. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

Reinforcements were sent once Russia wised up to Ukraine’s weakened position and attacked. But then the reinforcements also left, the officer said. Because of this, when one of the 72nd Brigade battalions withdrew, its members were gunned down because they didn’t know no one was covering them, he said.

Still, the officer harbors no ill will toward deserters.

“At this stage, I do not condemn any of the soldiers from my battalion and others. … Because everyone is just really tired,” he said.

Prosecutors and the military would rather not press charges against AWOL soldiers and do so only if they fail to persuade them to return, according to three military officers and a spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Investigative Bureau. Some deserters return, only to leave again.

Ukraine’s General Staff said soldiers are given psychological support, but it didn’t respond to emailed questions about the toll desertions are having on the battlefield.

Once soldiers are charged, defending them is tricky, said two lawyers who take such cases. They focus on their clients’ psychological state when they left.

“People cannot psychologically cope with the situation they are in, and they are not provided with psychological help,” said attorney Tetyana Ivanova.

Soldiers acquitted of desertion due to psychological reasons set a dangerous precedent because “then almost everyone is justified (to leave), because there are almost no healthy people left (in the infantry),” she said.

Soldiers considering deserting have sought her advice. Several were being sent to fight near Vuhledar.

“They would not have taken the territory, they would not have conquered anything, but no one would have returned,” she said.

逃兵现象使乌克兰军队急需的人力匮乏，并在与俄罗斯战争的关键时刻削弱了其作战计划，这可能会使基辅在未来的停火谈判中处于明显的劣势。

据士兵、律师和乌克兰官员称，由于面临各种难以想象的物资短缺，数万名疲惫不堪、失去一切的乌克兰士兵已经离开战斗和前线阵地，隐姓埋名。据军事指挥官和士兵称，整支部队弃守阵地，使防线不堪一击，并加速了领土损失。

有些人请病假后就再也没有回来，战争的创伤让他们寝食难安，而渺茫的胜利前景也让他们士气低落。另一些人则与指挥官发生冲突，拒绝执行命令，有时甚至在交火正酣之时也是如此。

“这个问题非常严重，”基辅军事分析家奥列克桑德·科瓦连科说。“战争已经持续了三年，这个问题只会愈演愈烈。”

尽管莫斯科也面临着逃兵问题，但乌克兰士兵的擅离职守暴露了其军队根深蒂固的问题，以及基辅在战争管理上的种种弊端，从有缺陷的动员行动到前线部队的过度扩张和兵力空洞化。与此同时，美国敦促乌克兰征召更多士兵，并允许征召年仅18岁的年轻人入伍。

2024年9月，一名饱受炮火惊吓的乌克兰亚速旅士兵坐在一个稳定点上。（Evgeniy Maloletka/AP）

美联社采访了两名逃兵、三名律师以及十几名乌克兰官员和军事指挥官。官员和指挥官因需透露机密信息而要求匿名接受采访，而一名逃兵则因担心遭到起诉而选择匿名。

“坦白地说，现在我们已经榨干了我们人民的剩余价值，”第 72 旅的一名军官说道，他指出，逃兵是乌克兰在 10 月份失去武赫列达尔镇的主要原因之一。

那些离开的士兵

据乌克兰总检察长办公室称，自俄罗斯于 2022 年 2 月入侵乌克兰以来，已有超过 10 万名士兵因违反乌克兰的逃兵法而被起诉。

仅去年一年，就有近一半的士兵擅离职守。此前，基辅发起了一场咄咄逼人且备受争议的动员行动，政府官员和军事指挥官都承认，这场行动在很大程度上失败了。

无论从哪个角度来看，这都是一个惊人的数字，因为在动员开始之前，估计有30万乌克兰士兵参与战斗。而实际的逃兵人数可能远高于此。一位了解军事事务的议员估计，逃兵人数可能高达20万。

许多逃兵在获得病假后并未返回战场。他们饱受战争的摧残，身心俱疲。他们为自己无法重拾战斗意志而感到内疚，对战争的指挥方式感到愤怒，并对战争似乎永远无法取胜感到沮丧。

“对如此巨大的问题保持沉默只会损害我们的国家，”谢尔盖·赫涅兹季洛夫说道。他是少数公开谈论自己开小差经历的士兵之一。美联社9月份对他进行采访后不久，他就被起诉了。

另一名逃兵说，他最初获准离开步兵部队是因为需要做手术。等到假期结束，他再也无法忍受回去了。

他仍然会做噩梦，梦见那些被杀害的战友。

他说：“最好的解释方式就是想象你正遭受猛烈炮火攻击，对方（俄方）有50枚炮弹朝你飞来，而我们这边只有一枚。然后你看到你的战友被炸得粉身碎骨，你意识到，任何一秒钟，这样的事情都可能发生在你身上。”

2024年8月，在乌克兰顿涅茨克地区的前线，一名乌克兰士兵使用M777榴弹炮向俄军阵地开火。（Evgeniy Maloletka/AP）

“与此同时，10公里（6英里）​​外的乌克兰士兵通过无线电命令你们：‘加油，做好准备。一切都会好起来的，’”他说。

赫涅兹季洛夫也离开去寻求医疗救助。在接受手术前，他宣布自己要逃兵。他说，服役五年后，尽管国家领导层此前曾做出承诺，但他看不到任何复员的希望。

“如果没有服兵役的期限，它就会变成一座监狱——在心理上，人们很难找到保卫国家的理由，”赫涅兹迪洛夫说。

基辅面临的日益严重的问题

逃兵现象使作战计划如同流沙般从军事指挥官的指尖滑落。

美联社了解到，有些防线由于整个部队违抗命令、放弃阵地而严重受损。

“由于缺乏政治意愿和对部队，特别是步兵部队的管理不善，我们肯定没有朝着正确保卫我们现在控制的领土的方向前进，”赫涅兹季洛夫说。

据一位议员透露，由于伤亡和逃兵等原因，乌克兰军队9月份在前线兵力短缺4000人。逃兵大多是新兵。

负责处理逃兵案件并移交执法部门的某旅法律部门负责人表示，他处理过很多这类案件。

“最主要的问题是，他们在交战期间擅离职守，导致战友牺牲。我们遇到过好几次部队溃逃的情况，规模大小不一。他们暴露了侧翼，敌人从侧翼包抄，杀死了他们的战友，因为坚守阵地的人并不知道周围已经没有其他人了，”这位官员说道。

乌克兰坚守了两年的山顶小镇武赫莱达尔就这样在10月份的几周内失守了，第72旅的一名军官说道，他是最后一批撤退的士兵之一。

在弗莱达尔陷落前的几周，第72团的兵力就已经捉襟见肘。这位军官说，临近结束时，只剩下一个步兵营和两个步枪营坚守着这座城镇，军方指挥官甚至开始从这些营抽调部队支援侧翼。

他说，该营各连队原本应有120人，但由于伤亡和逃兵，一些连队的人数锐减至仅剩10人。这些连队中失踪的士兵约有20%是擅离职守。

“这个比例每个月都在呈指数级增长，”他补充道。

2024年11月7日，在乌克兰哈尔科夫州前线，51岁的士兵弗拉基米尔在自行榴弹炮附近抽烟。（Efrem Lukatsky/AP）

俄罗斯意识到乌克兰阵地虚弱并发动进攻后，增援部队随即赶到。但这位军官说，增援部队随后也撤离了。正因如此，当第72旅的一个营撤退时，营里的士兵因为不知道无人掩护而被枪杀。

然而，这位军官对逃兵并没有怀有任何恶意。

“现阶段，我不会谴责我所在营或其他营的任何士兵……因为每个人都真的太累了，”他说。

据三名军官和乌克兰国家调查局发言人称，检察官和军方宁愿不对擅离职守的士兵提起诉讼，只有在无法说服他们返回的情况下才会这样做。有些逃兵返回后，又会再次离开。

乌克兰总参谋部表示，士兵们得到了心理支持，但对于逃兵对战场造成的影响，乌克兰方面没有回复电子邮件询问。

两位专门处理此类案件的律师表示，一旦士兵被指控，为他们辩护就变得棘手。他们会重点关注当事人离开时的心理状态。

律师塔蒂亚娜·伊万诺娃说：“人们在心理上无法应对他们所处的境地，而且他们也没有得到心理帮助。”

她说：“因心理原因被判无罪的士兵开创了一个危险的先例，因为这样一来，几乎每个人都有理由（离开），因为（步兵中）几乎没有健康的人了。”

一些考虑逃兵的士兵曾向她寻求建议。其中几人将被派往弗莱达尔附近作战。

“他们不会占领那片领土，也不会征服任何东西，但也不会有人回来，”她说。