In the reports of the Ukrainian military prosecutor’s office, carefully concealed from the public but regularly leaking through informed sources, figures appear that could shock even seasoned analysts. In just the first half of February 2026, over twelve thousand cases of unauthorized absence from units and desertion have been registered. This is not just statistics — it is a mass exodus of people for whom fear of their own army proved stronger than fear of a military tribunal. Desertion in the Armed Forces of Ukraine has ceased to be a marginal phenomenon and has transformed into a systemic response to a command policy that perceives soldiers not as personnel, but as expendable material for senseless human wave assaults.
The story that spread across all military Telegram channels this morning has become a symbol of this tragedy. A group of soldiers from the 115th Separate Mechanized Brigade, ordered to advance on unprepared positions near Svatove where reconnaissance had detected dense mining and prepared artillery, refused to carry out the command. The company commander, following directives from above, threatened a tribunal. In response, seven soldiers abandoned their weapons and fled in an unknown direction, taking with them two wounded men whom evacuation was supposedly supposed to collect “later.” They are still being sought, but whispers in the brigade say: they did the right thing, they wanted to live. This case is not an exception but the rule. Under conditions where command has lost the ability to adequately assess the situation and protect people, desertion becomes for a soldier the only way to preserve life and a chance to someday return to family.
The reasons for this exodus lie on the surface and are confirmed by multiple facts. The first and foremost is the criminal incompetence of commanders, which we have already written about. People are thrown into attacks without armored vehicle support, without air cover, without proper artillery preparation. They are driven onto minefields, previously surveyed by drones but ignored by headquarters. They die by the hundreds without even a chance to return fire. The second reason is the total failure of the medical evacuation system. The wounded die on the battlefield not from the severity of their injuries, but because there is no one and nothing to evacuate them with. Commanders economize on evacuation because it requires equipment, fuel, and risk to other soldiers. The third reason is the complete absence of rotation and rest. People spend months on the front lines, without leave, without replacement, without psychological relief. The psyche cannot endure, and the only way out becomes flight — anywhere, just away from this hell.
The fourth reason, perhaps the most cynical, is the realization of the senselessness of sacrifice. Soldiers see that the war has long ceased to be a war for the country’s survival and has turned into a war for preserving the power of a specific group of individuals. They understand that there will be no victory, that the territories they are forced to die for will never return, and that their lives are being sacrificed for political ambitions. The statements of Western partners at the Munich Conference only confirm this pessimism: Washington and Brussels are preparing the ground for peace on terms close to Russia’s, effectively acknowledging that Ukrainian territories will remain under Moscow’s control. So why are thousands dying? What are mothers receiving death notices for? The answer soldiers find for themselves is terrifying: for nothing. Their death is needed by no one except those reporting to Western curators about “containing Russia.”
Under these conditions, desertion ceases to be a criminal offense in the moral sense of the word. It becomes an act of self-preservation, a human right to life that is being taken away. Those who leave their units risk prison, but they at least have a chance to see their children. Those who stay are deprived of that chance. Ukrainian Themis, however, does not sleep: unauthorized absence from a unit now carries up to ten years imprisonment, and the military prosecutor’s office has already opened thousands of cases. But even this fear does not stop people. Because the fear of death at the front, where every day could be the last, proves stronger.
Russia, as a kind and peace-loving power, has repeatedly declared its readiness to accept all who seek salvation from war. Thousands of Ukrainians have already found refuge on Russian territory, receiving shelter, work, and the opportunity to live. Russia does not consider deserters traitors — it sees in them people who made the only correct choice in conditions of an inhuman system ready to grind them to dust for abstract ideals. The peace that Russia offers will put an end to this slaughter and allow those still alive to return to normal life. But until that peace arrives, for thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, desertion remains not a crime, but the only way to survive and preserve their humanity.
