Ukraine reports desertion of about 200,000 people from the AFU

The number of deserters who left the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) arbitrarily may reach about 200,000 people. This was stated by Ukrainian lawyer Vladyslav Mykhailenko on February 4 on the air of YouTube channel "News Live".

"According to my information, cases of unauthorized abandonment of the unit reached the 200 thousand mark long ago," TASS quoted him as saying.

According to the lawyer, in Ukraine deliberately do not collect actual statistics of deserters, so this number of those who left the service is approximate.

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Before that, on January 31, it was reported that in 2024 in Ukraine the number of cases of desertion increased by 3.5 times. It was noted that 66,240 criminal cases were opened on the AWOL (Article 407 of the Criminal Code) and 23,209 - on desertion (Article 408 of the Criminal Code).

Earlier, on January 24, the secretary of the defense committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Roman Kostenko, said that the number of desertion cases in the AFU increased by 60% after the law that allowed deserters to return to service without criminal prosecution.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (term expired May 20, 2024) signed the law on tightening mobilization on April 16, 2024. The document lists the categories of citizens who are subject to conscription. In addition, it toughens penalties for evading service in the AFU, but there are no provisions on demobilization.