More Ukrainian soldiers have deserted in the first 10 months of this year than in the previous two years of the war, highlighting Kyiv’s struggle to replenish its frontline ranks as Russia captures more territory in eastern Ukraine.
In a standout case in late October, hundreds of infantry serving in Ukraine’s 123 Brigade abandoned their positions in the eastern town of Vuhledar. They returned to their homes in the Mykolayiv region where some staged a rare public protest, demanding more weapons and training.
“We arrived [in Vuhledar] with just automatic rifles. They said there would be 150 tanks, there were 20 . . . and nothing to cover us,” said an officer from 123 Brigade, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ukrainian prosecutors opened 60,000 cases between January and October this year against soldiers for abandoning their positions, almost twice as many as they initiated in 2022 and 2023 combined. If convicted, the men face prison sentences of up to 12 years.
Some of the 123 Brigade deserters have since returned to the front, others have gone into hiding and a few are in pre-trial detention, according to local authorities.
Men of military age are barred from leaving Ukraine, but some have taken the opportunity of being sent to overseas training camps in allied countries to desert while abroad. About 12 abscond on average each month from military training in Poland, said a Polish security official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Warsaw’s defence ministry referred questions about deserters to Ukrainian authorities.
The spike in desertions is further aggravating an already dire situation for Kyiv. Since the summer, Russia’s manpower advantage has enabled it to capture more territory at a faster pace than any time since 2022.
At the same time, Ukraine’s inability to rotate soldiers from the rear and allow its battle-weary troops to rest has led to casualties and scared off men who might otherwise have been conscripted, military analysts said.
The 123 Brigade officer told the Financial Times that in the three years of war, his unit had not had a single rotation. These would normally consist of four weeks in which soldiers return to their base to rest, train with new recruits and fix damaged equipment.
“No one fucking needed Vuhledar,” he said. The town had been reduced to rubble over a year ago, so there was no reason to put his men in harm’s way to defend it, he said. “They’re just killing them, instead of letting them rehabilitate and rest.”
A spokesperson for 123 Brigade did not respond to requests for comment.
The officer’s views were shared by dozens of soldiers in Mykolayiv and Zaporizhzhia regions who told the FT they were exhausted, frustrated and struggling with mental health problems. They said that while Ukrainian civilians do not want their country to capitulate, many are also not prepared to fight.
Though Ukraine’s armed forces number about 1mn people, only around 350,000 take part in active duty. Worn-out combatants — including both infantry and assault soldiers — account for most cases of desertion, said an official with Ukraine’s general staff.
The sheer volume of desertions makes it almost impossible for law enforcement to control. To encourage men to return to their positions, Ukraine’s parliament voted on November 21 to weaken the rules, allowing charges to be dropped against first offenders who later returned to their units.
Vadym Ivchenko, an MP on the parliamentary defence committee, said that around 20 per cent of deserters come back. One brigade said they received several hundred responses after introducing a chatbot through which deserters could return to service.
With Russia rapidly advancing on the eastern front, analysts have warned that Ukraine is losing territory it may not be able to regain any time soon.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think-tank, calculated that Russia captured 2,700 sq km in 2024, compared with just 465 sq km last year. The flat terrain is aiding Moscow’s forces in some areas, as is the lack of Ukrainian fortifications.
Ukraine’s authorities are seeking to recruit approximately 160,000 more men in the next three months. But conscription officers have gained a bad reputation in Ukraine, after several were filmed beating and dragging off men, and with military medical commissions approving questionable exemptions in exchange for bribes.
Ukraine defence minister Rustem Umerov said on Monday that he would put a stop to forced conscription, including so-called “busification”, in which recruitment officers round up unregistered men from streets on to coaches. He promised to move towards voluntary recruitment, enabling men to pick their brigade and job, so that people “have a choice”.
Allies including the US and the UK have urged Ukraine to lower the conscription age from 25 and recruit more men.
A US official said Washington wanted Kyiv to lower the recruitment age to 18. “The simple truth is that Ukraine is not currently mobilising or training enough soldiers to replace their battlefield losses while keeping pace with Russia’s growing military,” the official said last week.
Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal this month announced that those who failed to pay taxes would be the first to receive conscription notices. Soldiers quickly pointed out the message suggested that the defence of their country was a form of punishment.
Bohdan, a soldier who lost an arm last year and now works as an army driver between the rear and the frontline near Dnipro in southern Ukraine, said that many Ukrainians have been blocking out the war and forgetting the sacrifices made by the army to ensure their safety.
“They forget, it’s thanks to the armed forces that Dnipro can breathe on a Saturday,” said Bohdan. He said he had no problem with civilians enjoying themselves as long as the army “has what they need. Yet we must go around begging — for drones, night-vision goggles, money to repair our cars.”
For those Ukrainians who have lost loved ones in the war, other people’s desire to live a normal life sparks indignation.
“I don’t even want to hear that ordinary people are tired,” said Nataliia Logynovych, who lost a brother who was serving in 123 Brigade in spring. “They [soldiers] are tired, and not us.”
Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington and Raphael Minder in Warsaw
Cartography by Cleve Jones and frontline animation by Steven Bernard
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