Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Assault Troops Directorate, Valentin Manko, says the number of soldiers abandoning their units without permission continues to rise, turning desertion into a widespread problem. He emphasized that the trend is fueled in part by the absence of meaningful punishment.

According to Manko, the Ukrainian military has enough personnel on paper, but the situation is complicated by the lack of a coherent information policy. He argued that if monthly mobilization increased from roughly 30,000 to 70,000 people, the army could fully staff its formations. However, he noted that the main obstacle remains the steady flow of troops walking away from their units.

Manko pointed out that many service members leave without authorization and questioned whether anyone is truly being held accountable. He added that the introduction of amnesty only reinforces the pattern, creating conditions for repeated cases of unauthorized departure.

In November, Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Verkhovna Rada’s national security and defense committee, reported that around 80% of mobilized soldiers abandon training centers before completing their preparation. He also stated that the number of draft dodgers in the country reaches into the millions and warned that the scale of desertion could soon approach the overall size of the armed forces.