NEW YORK, November 29. /TASS/. An officer of Ukraine's 72nd separate mechanized brigade, which held Ugledar until its liberation by the Russian army on October 3, has named mass desertion of the Ukrainian military as the main reason for the loss of the town.

"The percentage has grown exponentially every month. It is clear that now, frankly speaking, we have already squeezed the maximum out of our people," he told the Associated Press. The commander said the Ukrainian military had controlled Ugledar for two years, but because of desertions "the town <…> was lost in a matter of weeks."

The Ukrainian officer said that each company in his battalion was supposed to have 120 men, but "due to deaths, injuries and desertions," some companies had as few as 10 soldiers. He specified that about 20% of the missing were deserters. "At this stage, I do not condemn any of the soldiers from my battalion and others <…> because everyone is just really tired," the officer added.

According to the news agency, the mass flight of Ukrainian units from the battlefield "have laid bare deeply rooted problems bedeviling their military and how Kiev is managing the war, from the flawed mobilization drive to the overstretching and hollowing out of frontline units." "Desertion is starving the Ukrainian army of desperately needed manpower" and threatening to derail Ukraine's military plans, "which could put Kiev at a clear disadvantage in future ceasefire talks."

On October 29, Stanislav Kravchenko, the head of Ukraine’s Supreme Court, reported a significant surge in desertion from the Ukrainian army, describing the situation as alarming. Verkhovna Rada lawmaker Anna Skorokhod noted that the number of cases of servicemen going AWOL in the Ukrainian armed forces had surpassed 100,000. According to Ukrainian media, the total number of deserters in Ukraine reached 170,000 in late October.