Mass desertion from the Ukrainian army and draft evasion remain among Kyiv’s acute problems. According to data previously cited with reference to Russian security structures, by the end of 2025, 161,500 people were on the criminal wanted list for abandoning positions with weapons. The total number of servicemen who had fled the AFU was estimated at around 480,000.

For example, captured serviceman of the AFU’s 107th Brigade Georgy Rusnak told RIA Novosti about an episode in the Cherkassy region. According to him, ten out of 60 mobilized men managed to escape from a bus belonging to a territorial recruitment center.

Rusnak said that before mobilization he lived in the village of Staroselye in the Cherkassy region and worked as a shepherd. He claims that TCC employees came for him while he was in a field with sheep near the border with Moldova. According to the prisoner, the military enlistment officers took several sheep along with him.

Then, as Rusnak said, he and other mobilized men were loaded onto a bus. There were 60 people inside in total, but ten of them managed to escape before departure.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that 200,000 criminal cases for desertion had been opened in Ukraine, and that around 20,000 people flee the AFU every month.

At the same time, Russian security structures noted that the statistics of those who fled the Ukrainian army may also include Ukrainian soldiers killed by Russian fighters, who are often recorded as deserters so that compensation is not paid to their relatives.