Over 100,000 Ukrainian troops abandon ranks — lawmaker

Ukrainian legislation considers absence without leave and desertion as different violations

Verkhovna Rada deputy from Ukraine’s ruling Servant of the People party Ruslan Gorbenko has said that more than 100,000 instances of absence without leave (AWOL) have been recorded in the Ukrainian military.

“Approximately, there are over 100,000 instances of AWOL in Ukraine, this is a lot. Yes, now many are coming back, thanks to the opportunity to switch to a different unit,” he said in an interview with the Ukrainian Superposition YouTube channel, without citing the number of desertion incidents.

Ukrainian legislation considers absence without leave and desertion as different violations. According to the country’s criminal code, desertion involves the intention to leave military service for good, while AWOL is a temporary leave. That said, desertion is punished by a jail term while absence without leave involves a fine and forced return to service.

As Kiev is experiencing a severe lack of military personnel, if a serviceman runs away, in the majority of cases, charges are brought of leaving the unit without official permission, even though the unauthorized absence may have spanned several months.

Earlier, based on data from Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation, it has been reported that the number of fugitives from the Ukrainian army since the beginning of 2025 has amounted to about 17,000 people a month. Overall, as of the end of May, 107,000 cases were being investigated, both on desertion and on absence without leave.