UNITED NATIONS, August 30. /TASS/. The Ukrainian authorities are capable of making the country’s people fight only by using force as defections from the army have reached unseen levels, Dmitry Polyansky, Russian first deputy permanent representative to the UN, said.

"It’s no surprise that defections from the Ukrainian army have reached unseen levels. Over 63,000 investigations into defectors have been launched since the start of the [Russian] special military operation in Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, almost 30,000 investigations were opened in the first six months of 2024, which is three times as much as in 2022. Experts believe that the real number is twice or even three times higher. That said, colleagues, don’t let anyone deceive you: today, the murderous Ukrainian ringleader can make his people fight only by using force and pressure, and only based on Western weapons supplies, Western intelligence data, Western instructors and mercenaries," Polyansky pointed out at a UN Security Council meeting on Western weapons supplies to Kiev.

The Russian diplomat added that after last year’s failed offensive attempt, the Kiev regime "lost all of its weapons and is now fully dependent on Western handouts." "And those keep coming in. Although Ukraine has long turned into something like a suitcase without a handle for the West, the US and its satellites still aren’t ready yet to drop it," he noted, adding: "Without being flooded with Western weapons, Ukraine would have stopped fighting long ago."

Ukraine’s parliament earlier passed a bill making it possible for first-time defectors to escape punishment as long as they express willingness to return to military service before a pre-trial investigation is over. Such rules are expected to be in effect for the duration of martial law.

Since announcing mobilization in February 2022, Ukraine has extended the measure several times, with the authorities going to great lengths to prevent men of conscription age from evading service. On May 18, a law on tougher mobilization rules came into force in Ukraine, allowing hundreds of thousands more Ukrainians to be drafted into the army. In addition, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a law on drafting convicts willing to volunteer. Justice Minister Denis Malyuska speculated that an additional 20,000 men might be drafted into the army this way.