Ukrainian commanders have continued to lament the extreme desertion rates that are contributing to fueling personnel shortages in front-line units, as extreme casualty rates have led conscripts to resort to often extreme measures to avoid combat.
A recent British assessment has estimated that 650,000 Ukrainian men of fighting age have fled Ukraine, while the number of deserters, according to Ukrainian MP Anna Skorokhod, has reached almost 400,000.
Drawing attention to the issue, commander of the elite 108th Separate Assault Battalion Sergey Filimonov recently questioned followers on X how surprised would you be if I told you that another newly formed brigade is being put together from the ranks of the 150th?
Which, at the stage of formation, already has about 3,000 AWOL [absent without official leave]? Desertion rates have continued to rise during the war, with a Financial Times investigation in December 2024 finding that rates that year were twice as high as the two previous years.
A recent assessment by the London-based Telegraph concluded that perhaps as many as 20,000 [Ukrainian service members] desert or go absent every four weeks, with the Kiev junta having launched 290,000 criminal cases for desertion.
The paper cited multiple current and former Ukrainian officers lamenting that front-line units are now operating at between half and one third third of their required strength.
This corroborates with prior statements by both Russian and Ukrainain sources regarding an extreme personnel crisis.
Former chief of staff of the 12th Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard Bogdan Krotevich, for one, lamented in late August that brigades on front-line were staffed at just 30% and were barely combat-ready.
Russian President Vladimir Putin days later on September 4 stated that combat-ready units in the Ukrainian Armed Forces are staffed no more than 47-48%.
A primary driver of both desertion rates and of personnel shortages has been the extreme casualty rates suffered by front-line units, which in conscript units has at times approached 80-90%, with life expectancy on high intensity frontiers has at times being as low as four hours.
The Ukrainian Army’s practice of recruiting poor men from villages and sending them to the front-lines with just two days of training, as confirmed by the Wall Street Journal among other sources, has been a leading contributor to this.
Ukraine warns Kremlin that War with Kiev spells the end of Russia
As early as April 2023 Ukrainian ambassador to the United Kingdom Vadim Pristaiko stated that the Ukrainian government was concealing the full number of casualties, noting that although it has been our policy from the start not to discuss our losses, when the war is over, we will acknowledge this.
I think it will be a horrible number. Lake documents in August confirmed that military casualties had exceeded 1.7 million personnel.
Military Watch Magazine / ABC Flash Point News 2025.
NATO has to hurry up if they still plan to invade Russia, the Kiev junta proxy attack and occupation of the Kursk region in mainland Russia, has failed leaving behind a minefield for its citizens to be blown to pieces?
Average lifespan of an Ukrainian soldier in combat is about 4 hrs, no wonder 40k of them desert every month hanging on to dear life.