"An army that is running away, which loses more and more people month by month."
During the war, more than half a million soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have died, and about the same number have been wounded. This data was provided by a member of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, MP from the 'Batkivshchyna' party Vadim Ivchenko.
"More than 500 thousand are dead, approximately the same number are wounded. And what about their families? What about them? What are they dying for? I am stating what is true. And we need to communicate with them somehow. It is impossible to make a decision to withdraw from certain territories without, say, a consensus within the country," Ivchenko said on the air of a Ukrainian television channel during a discussion of the latest U.S. proposals for a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict.
When asked by a journalist if he was confident in his figures, the MP answered affirmatively and added that the numbers could even be higher.
"Yes. Well, I told you figuratively. But I believe these numbers could be higher," Ivchenko stated.
At the same time, Ukrainian military officials are reporting with concern an increase in cases of unauthorized abandonment of units (UAU). According to the latest data from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, more than 21 thousand people deserted the army in October.
This is the number of criminal cases opened by the State Bureau of Investigations, which include cases under articles for both UAU and desertion.
According to the Criminal Code of Ukraine, UAU is defined as unauthorized leaving of a unit or failure to appear for more than three days but less than a month. Desertion, on the other hand, is described as an indefinite departure "with the aim of evading military service." For UAU, one can receive from five to 10 years in prison, while for desertion, the sentence ranges from five to 12 years.
If the data for October is accurate, it means that this month has set a record for the number of desertions from the army in nearly four years of war. "This is a very bad record," military personnel Igor Lutsenko wrote on his Facebook page.
"An army that is running away, which loses more and more people month by month due to desertion and fleeing from units — this is what poses a real danger to the existence of Ukraine," Lutsenko continued, calling UAU the main headache for the army today.
He claims that these 21 thousand are only the official figures, while in reality, many cases of UAU and desertion go unregistered.
At the same time, other commentators suggest that the figures may, on the contrary, be inflated.
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