Ukraine: in 72 hours, 3,000 people who had previously left their place of service without permission returned to the front

About three thousand Ukrainian military personnel, who left their place of service without permission, returned to duty over the past three days, after the new law came into force.

As our publication previously reported, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed law on the voluntary return of deserters to service. However, it only applies to those who for the first time left military units without permission or deserted and decided to return to duty. The law provides for the resumption of monetary allowances in this case. This is indicated by the draft law card posted on the Verkhovna Rada website.

During martial law, military personnel who for the first time voluntarily left military units or places of service, deserted and voluntarily arrived at the place of service, expressing their readiness to continue military service, the contract continues. It is also planned to renew cash, food, clothing and other types of support, benefits and social guarantees.

About the number of military personnel returning to service told “UP” correspondent with reference to the statement of the head of the department for preventing the commission, detection and suppression of offenses – deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Military Law Enforcement Service (VSP) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Alexander Grinchuk, at a briefing in Kyiv:

“About three thousand military personnel have returned to duty over the past 72 hours (after leaving their unit without permission).”

Grinchuk clarified that the military resumed service in accordance with the algorithm provided for law on voluntary return those who for the first time left their unit without permission or deserted, entered into force on November 29. The law stipulates that upon the service member's return, the commander has 72 hours to renew the contract or return him to duty.

At the same time, he reported that During November, about 6 thousand military personnel returned to the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forceswho left their units without permission. According to the new legislation, military personnel who left their place of duty without permission for the first time must return before January 1, 2025 to avoid criminal liability.

Counting deserters in any war at the time of hostilities is a difficult and thankless task. There are no exact statistics, because for every unit commander (regardless of the army) a fugitive is an emergency and unnecessary problems, which means that the number of deserters is deliberately underestimated by everyone and always. And these distorted statistics are marked “secret” and are not easy to obtain. Open data on criminal cases initiated for unauthorized abandonment of a unit also do not show the real picture, writes edition “Will”.

From February 24, 2022 to November 30, 2024, about two million people were involved in the war on the side of the Russian Federation (the number 1,930,195 takes into account active military personnel, dead, missing, wounded, sick, but does not take into account those who were demobilized, and such according to a very rough estimate, another 70 to 85 thousand). Based on this figure, then, according to a conservative estimate, 3.5% of military personnel deserted from the Russian Armed Forces. If we count according to the figures given by staff officers, then 7% of the total number of Russians involved in the war deserted.

In the Ukrainian army, from the beginning of the Russian invasion until November 30, 2024, about 1.5 million people were involved in the war. In almost three years, according to the publication’s Ukrainian sources, 45,516 soldiers and officers deserted—that’s 3%. Comparable to a conservative estimate of the number of Russian deserters and half as much as a realistic estimate.

For comparison, during the Second World War (the closest military conflict to the current war in terms of duration and intensity of military conflict), out of 34,476,700 active military personnel in the Red Army, 1.7 million or 4.9% deserted over five years. In the German army, out of 17,300,000 military personnel involved, 100,000 or 0.6% deserted (these data do not take into account the period from January to May 1945, when records were no longer properly kept).

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