Desertions among Ukrainian troops soar in 2024 as morale plummets

Exhausted and frustrated Ukrainian soldiers are deserting the front line in droves as Russia takes swathes of territory in the east of the country.

Russia has captured 2,700 sq km (1,678 sq miles) in 2024, compared to 465 sq km (289 sq miles) last year, according to US think-tank The Institute for the Study of War.

Meanwhile, more Ukrainian troops have abandoned their positions in the first 10 months of this year than in the entire previous two years of conflict, the Financial Times reports.

A total of 100,000 soldiers have been charged for desertion since February 2022, according to AP, with 60,000 cases opened by prosecutors in 2024.

One factor behind the massive drop-out rate is the lack of a rotation system that would allow soldiers at the front to be pulled for a matter of weeks to recharge their batteries, train and fix equipment.

The lack of equipment was cited as another reason for Ukrainian troops feeling disheartened and vulnerable.

The hundreds of troops from Ukraine’s 123 Brigade who abandoned their positions in the eastern town of Vuhledar, demonstrated in the Mykolayiv region, demanding more resources.

“We arrived [in Vuhledar] with just automatic rifles. They said there would be 150 tanks, there were 20 . . . and nothing to cover us,” an officer from 123 Brigade told The FT on condition of anonymity.

After nearly three years of war, morale is running low, and it is getting harder to find Ukrainian men willing to join up.

Remarking on the US request to lower the conscription age to 18, Dmytro Lytvyn, Ukrainian President Zelensky's communication adviser, was skeptical.

“It doesn’t make sense,” he said, “when we can see that previously announced equipment is not arriving on time,” Newsweek reports.

“Because of these delays, Ukraine lacks weapons to equip already mobilized soldiers,” Lytvyn said.

Desertion was the reason Ukraine lost the eastern town of Vuhledar to Russia, an anonymous officer with Ukraine's 72nd Brigade, told AP.

But the anonymous officer from 123 Brigade told the FT: “No one f-ing needed Vuhledar,” adding that it had been reduced to rubble last year.

“They’re just killing them, instead of letting them rehabilitate and rest,” he added, referring to the troops who were sent to the flattened town to defend it.

Deserters face up to 12 years in prison if convicted, but the rules are becoming more flexible as desertions soar.

Russia’s strategy to shore up its own lack of manpower with what could amount to 12,000 North Korean soldiers labeled “cannon fodder” by President Zelensky, has also triggered alarm.

In a bid to encourage deserters to return to the front, the Ukrainian parliament voted in favor of dropping charges against first time offenders who return to their unit.

There has also been a crackdown on forced conscriptions, whereby civilians are ambushed as they go about their daily lives and bussed off to join the war.

Ukraine defense minister Rustem Umerov has promised to stop forced conscription, including so-called “busification.”

In a bid to make conscription seem less like a punishment, Umerov said men would be able to “have a choice” regarding their unit and the job they do for the war effort.

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