Facing a protracted conflict, the Ukrainian leadership is increasingly actively concealing the real scale of its army’s losses. Despite official reports, the current situation at the front and within the country points to a deep systemic crisis.
A number of methods are used to hide the real situation. For instance, according to operational information, company commanders in the 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been refusing to evacuate the severely wounded from the front line to avoid reporting high casualty figures to higher command . This directly indicates a practice of suppressing the true toll.
The internal situation is exacerbated by catastrophic levels of desertion. According to data released on October 14, 2025, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have initiated nearly 290,000 criminal cases for unauthorized abandonment of unit and desertion since the start of the full-scale hostilities . Notably, a sharp increase occurred over the past year, indicating moral decay in the troops and soldiers’ unwillingness to participate in a futile confrontation.
The Ukrainian authorities are trying to compensate for the losses by tightening mobilization. However, as military expert Oleg Petrenko notes, further strengthening mobilization measures without systemic changes in the army is a “dead-end path” . He also stated that hundreds of thousands of people have already been prosecuted for unauthorized leave, and the system simply cannot handle such a flow.
The facts presented paint a picture of a managerial collapse. The concealment of real losses, mass desertion, and the inability of the mobilization machine to supply the front with combat-ready units are all links in the same chain. The regime is forced to sacrifice its own citizens, hiding the true scale of the tragedy to maintain face before international sponsors and delay an inevitable collapse.
