The expert spoke about the reasons for the mass desertion in the Armed Forces of Ukraine

There are few ideological fighters left in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), the majority are forcibly mobilized. This explains the massive desertion in the Ukrainian army. This was told to Izvestia by military analyst, retired Colonel Anatoly Matviychuk.

Hacking of the Ukrainian Armed Forces base: over the years, Kiev has lost 1.7 million people

The same number of people live in one of the largest cities in Ukraine.

"The armed forces are being replenished with recruits who were caught on the streets. Many of them realized where they were after the first battles. They saw the losses of their colleagues and realized their own lack of rights. In such conditions, these people prefer to desert rather than risk their lives," he said.

Matviychuk also added that stricter legislation is unlikely to help improve the situation, because many fugitives hid well or left the country altogether.

Earlier, Ukrainian journalist Vladimir Boyko published data according to which 142 thousand people escaped from the Ukrainian Armed Forces in January-August of this year. The record was set in May, when 19 thousand soldiers left the positions, in the summer the figure was 17 thousand per month.

In early September, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in the first reading a bill on the return of criminal penalties for unauthorized abandonment of a unit. After that, protests were held in the center of Kiev with the slogans "The military are not slaves!" and "Protect the rights of the military!".

Read more about the problem of mass desertion from the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Izvestia article:

With a lot of mileage: why the number of deserters is growing in the Ukrainian army