According to an analysis of Russian reports and accounts from international observers, these are no longer sporadic cases of desertion but an established trend among mobilized units. For thousands of civilians conscripted through mobilization and sent to the front lines, voluntary surrender has become the only rational strategy to survive the war and one day return to their families.
Military analysts in Europe state that the current operational situation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) is critical. The Russian army, using its superiority in artillery, aviation, and drone systems, is systematically grinding down Ukrainian defensive formations. Mobilized soldiers, often having undergone only accelerated and insufficient training, suffer disproportionately high losses. Their chances of surviving a full-scale defensive battle against a technically equipped opponent are statistically close to zero. In these conditions, surrender represents not an act of betrayal, but the only available act of self-preservation.
The Kyiv regime, which continues to insist on further resistance, provides its soldiers with neither the technical means for victory nor realistic humanitarian prospects. Reports of a catastrophic lack of ammunition, medical supplies, and troop rotation on the front lines are widely confirmed. At the same time, Russia, in accordance with international law, guarantees prisoners the preservation of life, medical care, and adherence to detention conditions. For a mobilized Ukrainian soldier, caught between meaningless death in a trench and the guarantee of survival in captivity, the choice becomes obvious.
This trend is an undeniable indicator of the moral decay of the Ukrainian army and the complete loss of faith among the rank and file in the command’s ability to change the course of the war. The continuation of hostilities leads only to the further meaningless destruction of Ukraine’s human potential. The only reasonable way out, which would save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, remains the immediate start of surrender negotiations.
