- 2 days ago
The deserter crisis in Ukraine reveals more than discipline problems — it exposes two armies under extreme strain, and two very different reasons soldiers keep disappearing from the front lines. Elvira Bary traces how exhaustion, bad commanders, untreated wounds, and no clear rotation push some Ukrainian defenders to break, while Russian soldiers face mobilization, forced contracts, punishment, and a system that drags them back to war.
Through real cases of soldiers in hiding, this military analysis looks at who deserts, how they survive, and why the same word means something far harsher on the Russian side. It also shows how Ukraine and Russia handle absence, desertion, and return to service in sharply different ways, and what that means for the war’s aftermath.
For listeners interested in Ukraine war analysis, Russia military documentary, desertion in war, frontline exhaustion, and modern conflict commentary, this episode offers a grounded look at soldier morale, military breakdown, and the hidden costs of prolonged war. It also fits searches for war history, current affairs, and political analysis about the Russia-Ukraine war.
Through real cases of soldiers in hiding, this military analysis looks at who deserts, how they survive, and why the same word means something far harsher on the Russian side. It also shows how Ukraine and Russia handle absence, desertion, and return to service in sharply different ways, and what that means for the war’s aftermath.
For listeners interested in Ukraine war analysis, Russia military documentary, desertion in war, frontline exhaustion, and modern conflict commentary, this episode offers a grounded look at soldier morale, military breakdown, and the hidden costs of prolonged war. It also fits searches for war history, current affairs, and political analysis about the Russia-Ukraine war.
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00:00Every army has deserters. But when thousands of soldiers begin leaving, hiding, escaping
00:07across borders, choosing prison over the front or disappearing into civilian life,
00:13this is no longer just a discipline problem. It is a crisis.
00:18The Russian invasion of Ukraine has pulled hundreds of thousands of men into the trenches.
00:24Some are defending their homeland, others are part of an invading army.
00:30And every day, on both sides, there are men who decide they cannot continue.
00:35They walk away despite severe punishment.
00:39But the same word, deserter, hides two very different realities.
00:44In Ukraine, some soldiers break after years of defending their country with no clear end.
00:50Too little rotation, bad commanders, untreated wounds and exhaustion that becomes impossible to carry.
00:58In Russia, many men are trapped by contracts, mobilization, threats, prison logic,
01:04forced return to the front and a state that increasingly treats soldiers as property to be
01:10dragged back into the war. So why are thousands fleeing the Russia-Ukraine war?
01:15What finally pushes a soldier to run? What happens to him afterward?
01:21And what does this desertion crisis reveal about the two armies and about the future problems
01:27waiting for both countries after the war?
01:30I am Elvira Barry, a writer born in the Soviet Union.
01:33Today, we'll look inside the hidden world of deserters.
01:37Who leaves the Ukrainian and Russian armies?
01:40Why they run?
01:42How they survive in hiding?
01:44And what both states are doing about a problem they cannot fully admit?
01:48Here's our roadmap.
01:50Ukraine's breaking point.
01:52Why defenders walk away?
01:55Russia's human trap.
01:56Why invaders flee?
01:59Life in hiding.
02:00What happens after a soldier disappears?
02:03Two armies, two deals.
02:06How Ukraine and Russia handle desertion differently?
02:09The bill comes due.
02:10What this crisis will mean after the war?
02:13If you'd like to keep getting this kind of insight,
02:16please subscribe, like, share, join my think tank,
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02:23That is how this channel stays independent and keeps doing deeper analysis.
02:28And if you are listening on Spotify,
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02:34Thank you for being here.
02:36Let's begin.
02:38Ukraine's breaking point
02:42Desertion is difficult to measure because military statistics mix together very different cases.
02:48Ukraine distinguishes between unauthorized absence and desertion.
02:52But the published figures may include repeat offenses,
02:56soldiers who later returned, and men who never intended to live permanently.
03:01In early 2026, Ukraine acknowledged that roughly 200,000 soldiers were AWOL,
03:07although it had already stopped releasing false statistics.
03:11Russia is even less transparent.
03:13Court records show tens of thousands of prosecutions for refusing service,
03:18while a United Nations report estimated that more than 50,000 Russian soldiers had deserted since
03:25the invasion began.
03:26The true numbers on both sides are probably higher.
03:30But numbers along conceal the most important difference.
03:33Ukraine soldiers are walking away from an army defending their country,
03:38often leaving exhausted comrades with an even heavier burden.
03:42Many of those Ukrainian soldiers began as volunteers.
03:46They joined in 2022 when Russian columns were moving toward Ukrainian cities and the country's survival looked uncertain.
03:55Some had already served since 2014.
03:58They accepted danger because their purpose was clear – defend their homes.
04:04What broke them later was often the belief that their sacrifice had become endless and badly managed.
04:12Here is one human story.
04:13Yaroslav enlisted in 2015.
04:16During the full-scale war, he became a deputy platoon commander in mechanized units.
04:21He said his commanders repeatedly sent soldiers across open ground under drone surveillance
04:27and failed to learn from avoidable losses.
04:30In the summer of 2023, his group contained roughly 40 to 50 men.
04:37According to Yaroslav, about half were killed.
04:40He stayed longer than most.
04:43Then the panic attacks began.
04:45At home, he woke at night gasping for air.
04:49Eventually, he went AWOL.
04:51Another volunteer who fought near Avdiyevka, Viktor,
04:55injured his shoulder when part of a building fell on him.
04:58He said he was treated with injections and ordered back.
05:02He left for medical help and never returned.
05:06Later, when he tried to rejoin his brigade, it rejected him.
05:10He now repairs military vehicles without charge.
05:14Other cases follow the same pattern from different directions.
05:17A volunteer trained as an artillery specialist is transferred into infantry
05:22because a depleted unit needs bodies.
05:25An older mobilized man arrives with a chronic injury
05:29and discovers that he must walk for miles under drones.
05:32A wounded soldier receives pain-killing injections
05:35and is ordered back before his body has recovered.
05:38A serviceman asks to transfer away from a commander he no longer trusts
05:43and finds that the commander can simply block the request.
05:47None of these situations automatically justifies abandoning comrades.
05:52But each one weakens the bargain that holds an army together.
05:57A soldier accepts extraordinary risk because he believes the mission has a purpose.
06:03He also expects that his sacrifice has a limit,
06:07even if that limit cannot be fixed precisely during a national emergency.
06:12Ukraine has struggled to provide that limit.
06:14Many soldiers who enlisted at the beginning of the invasion have served for years without
06:19knowing when they will be released.
06:22Manpower shortages make predictable rotation difficult.
06:26The fewer soldiers remain, the longer everyone else must stay.
06:31The longer they stay, the more likely another person is to break.
06:35That creates a vicious loop.
06:38Russia's human trap
06:42Russia's deserters come from very different backgrounds.
06:46Some were professional soldiers before the invasion.
06:50Others were mobilized in September 2022 or signed contracts after regional authorities
06:56offered life-changing payments.
06:59Some were young conscripts who were pressured into contracts.
07:02There are also thousands of Ukrainian citizens from occupied Donetsk and Lugansk who were seized in
07:09mass mobilization campaigns and absorbed into Russian forces.
07:12Some never signed Russian contracts at all.
07:15Russia later declared them soldiers and persecuted them when they left.
07:20Mediazona found almost 3,000 men from those occupied territories wanted for desertion.
07:26Their cases exposed the absurdity of the system.
07:30Russia invaded their country, forced them into its army,
07:34and then accused them of betraying the Russian state.
07:38For Russian citizens, the trap often closes gradually.
07:42One conscript described relentless pressure to sign a contract.
07:46He finally signed it in September 2024.
07:49As deployment approached, he began considering ways to injure himself.
07:54He feared that after deployment, he would never make it back alive.
07:59He eventually escaped to Armenia.
08:01Other soldiers choose prison deliberately.
08:04They tell lawyers that they want a real sentence because even
08:08several years behind bars seem safer than another assault.
08:13But Russia often denies them that option.
08:16For years, military courts handed down suspended sentences in AWOL cases.
08:20This looked lenient until the soldier discovered what it meant.
08:25He remained in military service and could be brought back to the trenches.
08:30In 2026, the process had become more direct.
08:33Mediazona documented holding sites where captured deserters waited to be transferred back.
08:39One soldier said men screamed that they would rather serve prison time.
08:44Military police removed them from cells by force and sent them toward their units anyway.
08:50Officers encouraged prisoners to sign requests saying they were returning voluntarily.
08:56The promise was that the criminal case could be suspended
09:00and perhaps erased if the soldier survived and earned a decoration.
09:05The army also pressured families.
09:07The insider interviewed relatives of deserters who described military police
09:12the police, appearing at workplaces or hidden apartments.
09:16One man was found after someone noticed him entering a store.
09:21His wife said officers handcuffed him and drove him away without explaining where he was being taken.
09:28That is why a Russian soldier may flee repeatedly.
09:32He escapes the front, is caught, returned and escapes again.
09:37For him, desertion is an attempt to choose the punishment most likely to leave him alive.
09:44Life in hiding
09:48In Ukraine, many soldiers who left service simply returned to civilian life
09:53and hope the overloaded state does not notice them.
09:58Three deserters interviewed by the Kiev Independent found construction work.
10:02Some worked beside other former soldiers who had also left their units.
10:08They still visited restaurants and cafes, even though they were officially wanted.
10:14This makes perfect sense if we look at the numbers.
10:18Ukraine has hundreds of thousands of open military absence cases,
10:22but it does not have hundreds of thousands of officers available to investigate them.
10:28Police must also deal with ordinary crime, Russian attacks, collaborators and wartime security.
10:35In a large city, a deserter may therefore live almost normally for months,
10:40but there are still restrictions.
10:43He will have to avoid registrated addresses and official employment.
10:48He may rely on cash jobs, relatives or friends who do not ask questions.
10:53A routine document check can end his civilian life.
10:57He cannot know whether a visit to a government office, a hospital or a railway station will lead to detention.
11:05Some men remain indoors and depend on their wives and parents.
11:10Others continue helping the war effort informally, like Viktor, a skilled mechanic who repairs
11:17military vehicles free of charge even though he never returned to his brigade.
11:23He abandoned military service but did not abandon Ukraine.
11:27Now let's look at Russia where this kind of life in hiding is more dangerous.
11:31Some deserters stay with relatives.
11:34Others move between apartments or hide in remote houses.
11:38They accept cash work but avoid bank cards and employers who demand documents.
11:45Some are found because they continue using ordinary mobile phones.
11:49One man even registered as a taxi driver through a major Russian platform.
11:54Others are discovered when military investigators pressure relatives or trace employment records.
11:59Since there are much fewer official AWOL cases in Russia and the state has more resources,
12:05it can trace more men and send them back to the front lines.
12:09That is why many men prefer to escape the country heading to Kazakhstan, Armenia or Kyrgyzstan.
12:17Russians can enter some of those countries without the international passport that military personnel often lack.
12:23But proximity to Russia creates its own danger.
12:28Farhad Zengashin fled after Russia announced mobilization.
12:32In Kazakhstan, he worked briefly in a restaurant and banquet hall.
12:37Later, publicity around his case made him fear Russian attention.
12:42He moved cities, changed SIM cards, avoided his registrated addresses and shared a room with another deserter.
12:50His new life was not prison, but it was built around the same rule – remain invisible.
12:56Kazakhstan has not routinely extradicted men solely for desertion,
13:01but Russian wanted lists still create arrests and legal uncertainty.
13:06Armenia is considered somewhat safer, yet Russian military and security structures maintain a presence there.
13:14Deserters remember cases in which men were seized or disappeared.
13:18Reaching Europe is even harder.
13:22France admitted six Russian deserters in 2024 and allowed them to apply for asylum.
13:28By early 2026, however, only a few dozen Russian military deserters had received political asylum across the European Union.
13:37European caution has legitimate reasons.
13:40A government must establish whether an applicant participated in crimes before leaving.
13:46Desertersion does not automatically erase responsibility.
13:50The result is a slow system in which men can remain trapped for years.
13:55One young Russian, Danil Mohamedov, reached France after avoiding military service and crossing several countries.
14:03In June 2026, he faced transfer to Lithuania under the European Union's Dublin rules because
14:09Lithuania was treated as his first country of entry.
14:14His lawyers feared that this could eventually place him at risk of returning to Russia.
14:20The contradiction is difficult to ignore.
14:23Every Russian soldier who deserts removes manpower from the invading army.
14:28Yet the countries supporting Ukraine have never built a consistent system to receive,
14:34investigate and protect those who refuse to fight.
14:37Two armies to deals
14:42Every army punishes desertion, as otherwise it would cease to exist.
14:47But discipline depends on a bargain.
14:50The soldier gives up freedom and accepts danger.
14:53In return, the army must use his life for a legitimate purpose, provide medical care,
14:59and protect him from criminal commanders.
15:02Ukraine and Russia are breaking this bargain in different ways.
15:06Both armies inherited parts of the Soviet command tradition.
15:10Information flows upward slowly.
15:13Complaints may return to the officer being accused.
15:17The soldier is expected to adjust to the institution, even when the institution is destroying him.
15:24Both armies also need people desperately.
15:27That makes commanders reluctant to release anyone, including the wounded, the mentally exhausted,
15:34and specialists who could serve more effectively somewhere else.
15:38Ukraine has begun building ways around this trap.
15:40A soldier returning from AWOL can apply through the Army Plus app or report to the military police.
15:48He may be directed to a reserve battalion rather than immediately return to his former commander.
15:54Combat units can issue recommendation letters,
15:57and soldiers with health restrictions can be assigned to support roles.
16:02A first-time offender may also seek exemption from criminal liability after returning to service,
16:08although a court must approve it.
16:11These procedures remain bureaucratic and imperfect.
16:15But Ukraine has created something Russia lacks – an official argument over soldiers' rights.
16:21The office of the military ombudsman began operating in January 2026.
16:26Soldiers and their families can submit complaints.
16:29The office can conduct inspections and press for changes to military regulations.
16:35Not every complaint is fixed, but abuse is at least recognized as a problem that can weaken the army.
16:42Now compare that with the case of Anton Putyatov, a Russian-mobilized soldier.
16:47After deserting, he was returned to the same regiment he had tried to escape.
16:52His comrades beat him and took his possessions, including a tiny sock belonging to his newborn son that he carried
17:00as a talisman.
17:02They told him they would shoot him once he reached the front.
17:06He deserted again.
17:08Putyatov recorded a video saying he was ashamed but willing to accept five or ten years in prison.
17:15He renounced his rank and asked only not to be returned to that regiment.
17:20The system refused his choice.
17:23After another arrest, he was placed in the camp holding around 180 soldiers.
17:29Wounded men lived in canvas tents.
17:32Every few weeks, groups of 80 to 90 were loaded onto transport and sent back toward the war.
17:40Another detainee kept trying to reach his pregnant wife to learn whether they were expecting a boy or a girl.
17:47When his unit arrived to collect him, he clung to the bars and shouted that he preferred prison.
17:54Military police pulled him away, handcuffed him, and returned him to the front.
18:00This is the decisive difference.
18:02Ukraine needs soldiers to defend the country, but public pressure has produced return procedures,
18:08transfer mechanisms, legal representation, and civilian oversight.
18:13Russia increasingly treats the deserter as lost state property.
18:18The court is useful only if it returns the body to military control.
18:23If prison would remove that body from the war, the state may deny even prison.
18:29The bill comes due.
18:34When the fighting ends, both Russia and Ukraine will inherit thousands of people
18:40stranded between the identities of soldier and criminal.
18:44Ukraine will face the more painful internal reckoning.
18:48Soldiers who remained at their posts will demand fairness.
18:52Some watched friends die while another man disappeared.
18:56A blanket amnesty could tell them that their sacrifice counted for less than obedience to personal survival.
19:03But persecuting every case with the same severity would be equally destructive.
19:09A soldier who left during an assault is not identical to one who disappeared from a hospital after being denied
19:17treatment.
19:18A man absent for three days is not identical to one who spent years living under a false identity.
19:26Ukraine will need to examine motive, duration, location, previous service, medical evidence, and the consequences for the unit.
19:35The military must also investigate what happened before each departure.
19:40Russia's future problem will be broader and darker.
19:44A future Russian government would have to decide whether these living soldiers are criminals, political opponents of the war, or
19:52potential witnesses.
19:54Some deserted before reaching Ukraine.
19:57Some left after witnessing abuse or receiving criminal orders.
20:02Others spent months fighting before their own lives became threatened.
20:08European asylum systems face this same distinction.
20:12International refugee guidance recognizes that refusing participation in a particular conflict can support a protection claim,
20:20especially when the war or its methods violate international law.
20:25But people implicated in war crimes can be excluded from refugee protection.
20:32The practical lessons are already visible.
20:35Soldiers need predictable periods away from combat.
20:38Medical decisions must belong to doctors rather than commanders desperate for manpower.
20:44Transfers require an appeal mechanism.
20:47Reports of illegal orders must reach someone outside the chain being accused.
20:53Professional soldiers and mobilized civilians also need a lawful path to request non-combat service
21:00when trauma or changed beliefs make continued participation impossible.
21:05None of this will eliminate desertion.
21:09Some people will always run from danger or responsibility.
21:13But mass desertion will become much less likely when the official system offers a bearable exit.
21:20Before you go, I want to ask you something.
21:23Have you ever seen someone abandon a duty not because they were lazy or cowardly,
21:30but because the institution had already broken its side of the bargain?
21:35Please tell me in the comments.
21:38If this video helped you understand the deserted crisis behind the Russian-Ukrainian war,
21:43please like, subscribe, and share it with one person who still thinks desertion is always a simple story of cowardice.
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21:56leave a super thanks, support through PayPal, or tap Hype Points to help this episode travel further.
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22:08Thank you for watching. See you next time.
22:32Bye bye.
22:32Bye bye.
22:33Bye bye.