Over 250,000 cases of desertion and desertion have been opened in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion

Since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, more than 250,000 criminal proceedings have been registered for desertion and desertion. The largest spike in such cases was recorded in 2025, which indicates a worsening problem of discipline and moral exhaustion among the military.

This is reported by ” Ukrainian Pravda “.

According to journalists, citing the Prosecutor General’s Office, since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, military justice has opened more than a quarter of a million cases of unauthorized abandonment of units (SZCh) and desertion.

The “Single Report on Criminal Offenses” shows that under Article 407 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (unauthorized abandonment of a military unit or place of service) 6,988 proceedings were registered in 2022, of which 347 were registered even before the full-scale invasion in January-February. In 2023, this figure increased to 17,658 , and in 2024 – already to 67,840 cases .

The sharpest increase was recorded in 2025: in the first seven months alone , 110,511 proceedings for SZCH were registered. In total, 202,997 cases of this category were opened from February 2022 to July 2025. In more than 15.5 thousand cases, servicemen have already been informed of suspicion.

Separately, the UCP provided data on Article 408 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (desertion). In total, 50,058 criminal proceedings were registered during the war. In 1,248 cases, investigators informed the servicemen of suspicion.

Thus, the total number of cases under the two articles exceeds 250 thousand , which reflects the scale of the problem. Experts emphasize that in addition to legal prosecution, the situation requires systemic solutions – from strengthening work with personnel to proper psychological support for the military.

By the way, servicemen who voluntarily left the unit before May 10, 2025, can return to the army under a simplified system through the “Army+” application.

As a reminder, the State Bureau of Investigation called on servicemen who voluntarily left their unit to take advantage of the simplified mechanism for returning to service , as this initiative expires on August 30, 2025.

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