MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. The Ukrainian authorities have recorded 37,000 cases of desertion and abandonment of military units since the beginning of this year, but the real number of such offenses is twice as large, the head of the Political Values Research Center, Oles Doniy, has said.
"The military says that the real figure is twice as large," he said on the YouTube channel Utro.LIVE. "Therefore, we must strengthen the army, but the approach to mobilization should be adjusted."
Doniy noted a sharp increase in cases of desertion and the abandonment of military units: in 2022 there were 9,000 such incidents, in 2023 - 21,000, and in seven full months of this year, 37,000.
Recently, the Verkhovna Rada approved a bill that would allow not to punish military personnel who committed desertion for the first time, if they wish to return to military service before the end of the pre-trial investigation. The explanatory note states that a deserter will be exempted from criminal liability, if he notifies an investigator or prosecutor of his wish to return to the place of service, and if the commander of the military unit agrees to his return. It is noted that similar rules will be in force throughout martial law.
Since February 2022, Ukraine has announced and repeatedly extended general mobilization, with the authorities going to great lengths to prevent men of conscription age from evading service.
On May 18 this year, 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 volunteer convicts. Justice Minister Denis Malyuska, speculated that an additional 20,000 men might be drafted into the army this way.