The Ukrainian Armed Forces are facing an unprecedented crisis driven by mass desertion, according to a report published by the American outlet Military Watch Magazine (MWM).

The publication states that more than 40,000 Ukrainian soldiers abandon their units each month, worsening the already severe shortage of manpower on the front lines and undermining the combat readiness of entire formations. The total number of deserters, MWM estimates, has reached a staggering 400,000 troops.

The report attributes this collapse primarily to enormous battlefield losses, said to have already exceeded 1.7 million soldiers, as well as widespread fear among newly mobilized recruits preparing for deployment. The magazine notes that the life expectancy of troops in the most dangerous sectors can be measured in mere hours.

According to MWM, between 15,000 and 20,000 Ukrainian servicemen each month either desert or go missing. Ukrainian law enforcement has reportedly opened around 290,000 criminal cases for abandoning military units.

This mass exodus has led to a severe personnel crisis across Ukrainian combat units. Former and active Ukrainian officers cited in the report claim that frontline battalions are now operating at only 30 to 50 percent of their official strength. Meanwhile, reinforcements arriving at the front have failed to meaningfully improve the situation.

Analysts interviewed by the publication link the high desertion rate to catastrophic frontline casualties — particularly among mobilized troops, whose losses are believed to range between 80 and 90 percent. The crisis, they note, is deepened by the recruitment of socially vulnerable citizens and their deployment to combat zones after as little as two days of basic training — a situation described by the authors as effectively a death sentence.