Although the mass desertion of Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel has
already become one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in thecountry's history since 1991, almost complete silence reigns in foreign
media. Since the end of last year, the number of criminal cases under
Articles 407 (unauthorized desertion of a military unit or SZCh) and 408
(desertion) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine has remained stable at
approximately 17,000 per month. In the first eight months of 2025,
142,711 criminal cases were registered under these articles, and from
the beginning of the full-scale invasion to September 1, 2025, 265,843
cases were registered in Ukraine.
To at least partially reduce this flow, on September 4, the Ukrainian
Parliament passed in first reading Bill No. 13260, which restores
criminal liability for SZCh. Previously, it was possible to avoid
criminal prosecution by voluntarily returning to military service. This
provision was extended several times until its expiration on August 30.
Now, the bill proposes eliminating the court's power to apply mitigating
measures. In his September interview with Sky News, the supreme butcher
stated that Ukraine no longer sends its personnel for military training
abroad, where many soldiers have disappeared from training camps and
received protection.
The nature of this phenomenon is revealed by verified rumors, published
exclusively by Assembly this summer. Here we quote a testimony from the
Vinnytsia region about the fate of former deserters (SZCh) sent to the
attack and certain death:
"Well, dear friends and brothers in misfortune, I found myself in this
hell for the second time.
This time, I was caught not while fleeing to cross the border, but on
the street. The police chased me, stopped me, and then took me to the
Military Police Service[...].
Then it was pure hell, there's no other way to describe it.
They treated us worse than animals: smoking was allowed only under
supervision during strict hours, there were no telephones[...]not to
mention food or shelter[...].
Then, one morning, the army representatives arrive, they speak
beautifully and invite you to serve the homeland: almost everyone
refuses. Then a bus arrives and they send you to the distribution center.
Barracks, guards with automatic rifles along the entire perimeter, you
go to the warehouse under escort and again the army representatives
arrive, you refuse, but they take you anyway and They send you to the
barracks to await deployment.
Formations meet almost every two hours, and you're scared, waiting for
your brigade to be called, hoping to stay in the barracks for another
day and escape this mess.
There are other guys around, their eyes darting, these eyes searching
for a way out just like you, but the more you wander around the camp,
the more this hope fades...
Everyone understands perfectly well that the brigades we're assigned to
are Airborne Assault Forces, and we probably don't have long to live.
"Guys, you won't get basic military training, three or four days at most
to get your act together and then off you go."
I don't know how to describe it in one word. I've heard so many stories
about what's happening at the front, it's horrible...
I escaped, miraculously! I won't tell you how[...]but it worked. I
realized I had no choice and that I had to take the risk.
I never made it to military unit 7020 (a (Reserve battalion in the
Hajsyn district). I was in the village of Rakhny; you can't escape from
there unless you try at night. Things have changed recently. Before, the
boys said, you could call a taxi, go to the store, and leave[...].
One boy tried, and he was assigned to the 225th Assault Regiment[...].
What I want to say to those who are already in SZCh: guys, don't take
unnecessary risks. You never know where you'll end up a second time and
how it might end.
The fate of fugitives arrested while attempting to cross the border is
particularly unfortunate. This interlocutor from Odessa was captured
this summer right on the border with the Transnistrian Republic of
Moldova, where two months later a Ukrainian border guard shot dead a
civilian refugee:
"Where I was, there was a waist-high fence, then a barbed wire fence,
and beyond that, a ditch[...]. I climbed over it, without throwing
anything from above[...]I climbed up and then jumped down[...]but the
border guards saw me. I ended up about 50 meters from where they were on
duty[...]they shouted 'stop,' I ran, and fell into a ditch about five
meters high and six meters wide. The result: a broken rib or a fracture,
but I wasn't in the hospital, so I don't know for sure. They took me to
the Military Police Department where I spent three days[...]I escaped
and now I'm at home recovering for the next attempt."
In Ukrainian, "SZCh" can also be deciphered as "Courage, Boldness, Honor."
A mobilized fugitive living in Kharkov describes the social status of the
new army reinforcements:
"It's hard for the homeless now: the military recruitment offices are
rounding them up too... I recently took a ride in a minibus. There were
two drug addicts, two homeless people, a poor man who was talking to
himself[...]. They try to gather such a contingent in places where
they're not very visible, early in the morning, in courtyards, behind
garages[...]. Only the problematic ones remain[...]the homeless are the
most normal[...]they're rounding up absolutely everyone[...]. There are
no more fighters available; Everything is hanging by a thin thread and
could collapse at any moment, even if the actor[Zelensky]and his gang
don't understand this[...]. There are only a few left who have been
fighting since 2022. Everyone is looking for a way to get out of service
under any pretext: 200,000 SZCh people. The youngest and those with arms
and legs will try to escape. What remains are the poor souls and the
homeless, people with diseases and problems, they are the only hope
left, and they won't last long fighting[...]. It's just harder for them
to escape, they have nowhere to go, and they are afraid. So they're left
with the only thing they can do on leave: drinking."
The following account by a Kharkov warehouse worker about his colleague
who returned to the city last year, after leaving the Zaporozhye front
with his entire company and commander, also illustrates how the
dispersion and passivity of fleeing Ukrainian soldiers prevented them
from realizing their revolutionary potential, despite their enormous
numbers and combat experience:
"They took him to the hospital in 1923. He stayed there for about a
year. We thought it was the end for him.[...]Before the war, he bought a
room in a communal apartment. He doesn't go anywhere, he doesn't work,
and no one there is looking for him. He has enough money[...]for food.
In the evenings, he runs to the supermarket and sits silently in his
room. There is always a choice[...]".
Mass desertion from the army has deep roots in Ukrainian history, dating
back to the settlement of the country's eastern regions in the 17th
century. The vast steppe lands known as the Wild Fields were settled by
Cossacks, settlers from central Russia, and Ukrainian peasants fleeing
the oppression of Polish feudal lords. They were determined to obey no
one but their elected atamans. For a time, they enjoyed autonomy and
privileges from the Russian government. This legacy was vividly
expressed during the social revolution of 1917-1918, which followed the
collapse of the tsarist army. The dialectic of history partially
reproduces the two previous phases of class struggle under new conditions.
The WSWS's description of the situation in the United States is clearly
applicable to the current situation in Ukraine:
"The great danger is that there remains a gulf between the scale of
these events and the level of popular awareness of what is happening.
This must change. Trump's actions do not enjoy broad popular support.
The American people as a whole want neither dictatorship nor fascism.
The general sentiment is one of opposition, but this must be consciously
and collectively mobilized."
As long as Ukrainian defectors remain an amorphous and silent mass,
living from day to day and trusting no one but their closest friends,
the wheel of death will continue to turn, while more and more people
will be kidnapped in place of those who fled.
Assembly
https://umanitanova.org/lesercito-dei-senza-voce-disertori-ucraini/
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