"He said he chose to desert after realising how perfunctory and ineffective his training was for real combat, and that he would inevitably become a front-line stormtrooper with no chances of survival. There's zero training. They don't care that I won't survive the very first attack, Tymofey said, referring to the drill sergeants who were training him in April after police rounded him up in central Kyiv."
"He claimed he has not been officially charged with desertion or going AWOL (absent without leave), charges that can be seen in the online and publicly-accessible registry of pretrial investigations. His explanation is simple: Half the country is on the run, while military and civilian authorities do not have the capacity to track down and apprehend each deserter. Prosecutors said in October that some 235,000 servicemen went AWOL, and almost 54,000 have deserted since Russia began its full-scale invasion in 2022."
Thousands of Ukrainian conscripts have fled military service despite threats of jail or social isolation. Many deserters escaped from training centres surrounded by high concrete walls and barbed wire. Some conscripts report perfunctory, ineffective training that leaves them unprepared for frontline combat and certain death. Trainers focused on preventing escapes rather than teaching marksmanship or combat skills. Prosecutors reported about 235,000 servicemen went AWOL and almost 54,000 deserted since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, with a surge between September 2024 and September 2025. Authorities lack the capacity to track down and apprehend many deserters.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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