Desertion has long been one of the most unequivocal indicators of an army under unsustainable stress. During the Russian-Ukrainian war, it is one of the typical problems—tens of thousands of combatants on both sides have deserted, risking jail, death, or exile. Those who are interested in knowing about this war can learn much through desertion about the human toll of war in the twentieth century and the collapse of morale under constant pressure.
The Scale of Desertion
The numbers are impossible to overlook. Ukrainian prosecutors have lodged over 30,000 desertion cases in recent months, a figure unimaginable during the previous phase of the war. The ferocious pace of battle and the lack of genuine rest pushed soldiers to the point of breaking. Reports indicate that the number is likely higher than that.
Russia is similarly afflicted, but it is not able to keep it on the down low. Foreign estimates indicate that over a quarter of a million Russian conscripts have defected abroad since the invasion. There have been thousands of instances filed in Russian courts of missing servicemen, with desertion being the issue in most of them.
Why Soldiers Walk Away
The motivation is less stratified but shares recurring themes: desperation, disillusionment, and despair. Ukrainian troops might fight out of one horrible battle only to walk directly into another, with minimal or no time off. Leaves are brief, and even those are often postponed. A soldier complained bitterly that prison at least provided one thing the trenches lacked—clarity regarding when it would end.
For the Russian soldiers, who were largely dispatched into the war with little training, there is an ideology of being expendable. Deserter testimony describes the units entering combat as “merely meat for the machine.” The absence of purpose, the loss of life, and the increasing skepticism about the war itself have all contributed to the decisions to flee.
Punishment and Consequences
Each government criminalizes desertion. In Ukraine, penalties range from five to twelve years, although reforms enable some first-time deserters to return unpunished. Russia is much more extreme—surrendering or deserting troops can be imprisoned, whereas detained soldiers are held in ad-hoc cells or forced into consignment into punishment battalions where survival is not assured.
The threats don’t end at the border. Those Ukrainians who have managed to escape the army draft have perished while trying to swim rivers or mountain passes into neighboring nations. Russian deserters who flee overseas usually go underground lest they be tracked down or deported.
Old and New Coercion
History abounds with evidence that armies have had a long tradition of using terror to dominate soldiers. During World War II, Soviet blocking units patrolled the rear to capture and punish deserters. Russian forces today have been accused of going back to such tactics, including accounts of killings that were used to intimidate others into submission. Even centuries ago, European, North African, and Asian military commanders approved summary punishments to keep panic in check.
The Deserter’s Dilemma Abroad
For those who do manage to escape, the issue of asylum is problematic. Under international law, protection can be granted for those being persecuted, particularly if they are against wars on political or ethical grounds. It is already accepted by some European countries that Russian deserters have been accepted, but most applicants continue to find it difficult to make their case. The process is bureaucratic, disorganized, and often filled with suspicion.
Impact on the Battlefield
The effect of desertion is not individual on individual—it alters the direction of the war itself. Ukrainian soldiers are thinly stretched, sometimes ten to a man outnumbered. Sleep deprivation and coordination also cut short their capacity to hold. Russia merely keeps pumping men into the war, though enticing soldiers into combat does nothing to fix its morale problem.
Ultimately, the cycle of desertions by both sides only serves to confirm an as-old-as-war truth that the waging of war is about as much a matter of science as it is of art: that morale and discipline are every bit as essential as strategy or firepower. Behind every headline-read banner announcing troop mobilization or new campaigns stand women and men burdened with exhaustion, terror, and the hubristic human need to survive.