People's Deputy Anna Szkorohod, a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's unicameral parliament), admitted in an interview with the Novosztyi Live YouTube channel that the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) has a serious manpower problem. She added that the situation is worsening as many people are leaving the AFU without any authorization.
"I would not give an exact number, but I would say more than 100,000," Szkorohod responded when asked how many soldiers have abandoned their posts. Other sources have given higher estimates, according to Remix News.
Pundits such as military lawyer Roman Likhachev and Supreme Court of Ukraine President Stanislav Kravchenko have put the number as high as 170,000. Likhachev recently spoke about such levels of desertion, while Kravchenko pointed out that the number of desertion attempts has increased tremendously.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian National Security Council Secretary Oleksandr Lytvynenko told the Verkhovna Rada that the AFU needs 160,000 soldiers in three months. His request came as Russia continued to make progress at the front.
Russian forces in recent weeks have advanced across Donbas and other areas, forcing Ukrainians to retreat as they successfully occupy villages and settlements. Related to this development, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Moscow had captured the mining town of Selydove in the Donetsk People's Republic.
While Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed that the city is in Russian hands, Selydove's capture is bad news for Kyiv because the mining town is located only a few kilometers away from Pokrovsk, an important logistics hub.
Military expert and open-source intelligence (OSINT) analyst Emil Kastehelmi remarked that the mining town is "basically lost," according to the Kyiv Independent.
"That's the biggest city to fall after Avdiivka in the winter and it fell in a couple of weeks or so," said Kastehelmi, an OSINT analyst at the Finland-based Black Bird Group. "So it was a quick, quick move."
Tens of thousands deserted in the first nine months of 2024 alone
Indeed, desertion remains a serious problem among the AFU's ranks. Last month, Kyle Anzalone of the Libertarian Institute reported that the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine (OHP) has opened 51,000 cases of desertion through the first nine months of 2024. He also acknowledged the varying numbers of desertion cases reported by various outlets.
The Times of London also confirmed that 51,000 criminal cases were opened "for desertion and abandonment of a military unit between January and September of this year." Spanish newspaper El Pais previously put the number of prosecutions at 45,000 in August, while Qatar's Al Jazeera reported that the number is at least 30,000.
Anzalone remarked that Kyiv began the year with a headcount of between 500,000 and 800,000 active-duty soldiers and an additional 300,000 reservists. But that number has dwindled since then, as the AFU sustained casualties while defending Ukraine from Russian advances. Casualties incurred during its incursion of the Kursk region also contributed to the loss of manpower.
Since then, the AFU has struggled to replenish its ranks. Kyiv has even dropped its conscription age from 27 to 25. Penal conscription has also been explored, with prisoners given the chance to earn their freedom if they join the AFU. (Related: Warmonger Lindsey Graham urges Ukraine to expand its CONSCRIPTION efforts.)
According to Anzalone, the number of Ukrainians prosecuted for desertion has significantly increased throughout the Russia-Ukraine war. Only 9,000 Ukrainians were prosecuted in 2022, but it had more than doubled to 24,000 last year.
But one deserter who was jailed defended his abandonment, saying that time behind bars was a better option than time on the battlefield. "At least in prison, you know when you will be able to leave," he told the Times of London.
Head over to UkraineWitness.com for more stories about the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Listen to Col. Douglas MacGregor discussing the mass desertion problem among the AFU's ranks in this clip.
This video is from the Sanivan channel on Brighteon.com.
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