A-Infos (en) France, OCL: Desertions Continue on the Fronts of the War Between Russia and Ukraine by Saint-Nazaire (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Ukraine's Voiceless Army: Ukrainian Deserters Speak Out ---- Although 
the mass desertion of Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel has already 
become one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in the country's 
history since 1991, foreign media remain almost completely silent on the 
subject. Since the end of last year, the number of criminal prosecutions 
under Articles 407 (unauthorized abandonment of a military unit, or 
SZCh) and 408 (desertion) of the Ukrainian Criminal Code has remained 
stable at approximately 17,000 per month. During the first eight months 
of 2025, 142,711 criminal proceedings were registered under these 
articles, and since the beginning of the full-scale invasion[February 
24, 2022], as of September 1, 2025, a total of 265,843 cases have been 
registered in Ukraine.

In an effort to reduce this flow at least to some extent, the Ukrainian 
parliament approved Bill No. 13260 in its first reading on September 4, 
restoring criminal liability for military deserters. Previously, it was 
possible to avoid prosecution by voluntarily returning to military 
service. This provision was extended several times, until its expiration 
on August 30, 2025. The bill now proposes to remove the court's ability 
to apply measures to mitigate punishment. In his September interview 
with Sky News, the Supreme Butcher stated that Ukraine no longer sends 
its military personnel for training abroad, where so many soldiers have 
disappeared from training camps and received protection.

The nature of this phenomenon is revealed by verified testimonies, 
published exclusively by Assembly this summer. Here is the testimony 
from the Vinnytsia region about the sending of former SZCh members to 
assault units, that is, to certain death:

"Well, dear friends and brothers in misfortune, I find myself in this 
hell for the second time.
This time,[they caught me when]I wasn't hiking[to cross the border], but 
simply walking down the street. The cops chased me, cut me off, and then 
took me to the Military Law-Enforcement Service. This didn't happen to 
me because I was living the good life; I was on my way to work and got 
caught.
And 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 and at strict hours, there was no telephone, no possibility 
of calling, etc. I won't talk about food or lodging, although I can't 
say that I really starved to death.
Then one morning,[army]representatives arrived, spoke eloquently, and 
invited us to serve the homeland. Almost everyone refused. Then a bus 
arrived and[they took us]to the dispatch center.
Barracks, guards armed with automatic rifles all around the perimeter, 
several people at a time go to the store under heavy guard, 
again[army]representatives, and you refuse, but they take you anyway and 
send you to the barracks to await your transfer. Trainings
take place almost every two hours, and you wait, with your ass clenched, 
for your brigade to be called up, hoping to stay one more day in the 
barracks and finally get out of this mess.
There are other guys around you, their eyes scanning in all directions, 
looking for a way out just like you, but the longer you hang around the 
compound, the more that hope fades...
Everyone understands perfectly well that all the brigades they've been 
assigned to are airborne assault forces, and you probably don't have 
long to live. As one of them said: "Guys, you won't have any basic 
military training; three or four days maximum to prepare, and then 
you're off."
I don't know how to describe it in one word. I've heard so many stories 
about what's happening on the front, it's just horrible...
I escaped, miraculously escaped! I won't tell you how, I'll just say it 
was incredibly daring and stupid, but it worked. I just realized I had 
no other choice and had to take the risk.
I didn't join military unit 7020[a reserve battalion in the Gaisyn 
district], I was in the village of Rakhny. You can't escape from there 
like that, unless you try at night. Things have changed a bit lately. 
Before, the children said, you could call a taxi, go to the store, and 
leave.
Everyone there was SZCh. The guy tried to go, but they sent him to the 
225th[Assault Regiment]. I refused everywhere; they literally dragged me 
by the hand.
What I want to say to those who are already in the SZCh: Guys, don't 
take unnecessary risks. You never know where you'll end up the second 
time or how it might end.
Peace and all the best to everyone. Sooner or later, all this will end. 
Of course, I'd like it to be as soon as possible.

The fate of fugitives who were arrested while trying to cross the border 
after escaping is particularly tragic. This Odessa speaker was captured 
this summer right on the border with the unrecognized Moldovan Republic 
of Transnistria, 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 simply jumped over the first one. The fence was 
chain-link, with barbed wire at waist height and on top. I simply 
climbed over it, without throwing anything from above. I grabbed the top 
support with my hand, stepped on the waist-high barbed wire, climbed up, 
and then jumped over it.
The border guards were even surprised that the fence wasn't damaged. I 
only had to get out of the ditch to be free, but they saw me and pulled 
me out. I was unlucky enough to be about 50 meters from where they were 
stationed. I was in the process of jumping over the fence, they heard 
me, shouted "Stop!" ", I ran and fell into a ditch about five meters 
high and six meters wide. Result: a broken or cracked rib.
I wasn't in the hospital, so I'm not sure. They took me to the Military 
Police, where I spent three days. When I was taken to the investigator, 
I escaped and am now recovering at home for the next attempt.

A conscripted fugitive living in Kharkiv speaks eloquently about the 
social situation of new army recruits:

It's very hard for the homeless now; the military recruiting offices 
round up almost all of them, specifically... I myself traveled recently 
in a minibus. There were two drug addicts, two homeless people, a poor 
man, and another one who was talking to himself. Basically, as I 
understand it, it's because they try to round them up in places with few 
people, early in the morning, in yards, behind garages, and so on. And 
that's how they gather this contingent. It's a real zoo, and in there, 
the homeless are the most normal. The recruiting, of course, is 
incredible; you really feel victory is just around the corner...
A year ago, they let people go if they saw the slightest problem. But 
now they round up everyone; only the problematic people remain. There 
are no more volunteer fighters; Everything hangs by a thread and can 
collapse at any moment, even if the actor[Zelensky]and his gang don't 
understand it.[...]There are only a few left of those who have been 
fighting since 2022. Everyone is looking for a way to leave the service, 
under any pretext: there are 200,000 SZCh men.
The younger ones, those who still have arms and legs, are fleeing. Those 
who remain are the poor and homeless, suffering from many diseases. They 
are our only hope, but something tells me that you won't last long 
fighting them. They are demotivated; it's just harder for a homeless 
person to escape; they have nowhere to go and are afraid. So they stay. 
All they can do is drink while on leave. Unfortunately, homeless people 
are often sent to dirty units, from which it is simply harder to escape.

The following story, told by a Kharkiv warehouse worker about his 
comrade who returned to the city last year after leaving the Zaporozhye 
Front with his entire company and commander, also illustrates how the 
dispersal and passivity of deserting Ukrainian soldiers prevent them 
from developing their revolutionary potential, despite their 
considerable numbers and combat experience:

He was busified[taken off the street, forcibly conscripted, and sent to 
the front]in 2023. He stayed there for about a year. We thought that was 
it for him; he's been quiet and intimidated his whole life. He 
reappears, and everyone is shocked. He's fine. He's an orphan who grew 
up in an orphanage. Before the war, he bought a room in a shared 
apartment. No one's looking for him. He's not going anywhere. He's not 
working. He has a little money. He probably earned it. And how much does 
he need, after all? Just enough to eat. He runs out to do the shopping 
in the evening and sits quietly in his room. He always has a choice. 
And, generally, only dogs are useful; humans work.

Mass desertion from the army has deep roots in Ukrainian history, dating 
back to the colonization of the country's eastern regions in the 17th 
century. The vast steppe territories known as the "Wild Fields," along 
with settlers sent by the Central Russian administration, were settled 
by Ukrainian Cossacks and peasants fleeing the oppression of Polish 
feudal lords, determined to obey only their elected chieftains. For a 
time, they enjoyed autonomy and privileges from the Russian government. 
This legacy later manifested itself vividly in the social revolution of 
1917-1918, which followed the collapse of the tsarist army. The 
dialectic of history partly reproduces the two previous stages of the 
class struggle under new conditions.
However, the WSWS's description of the situation in the United States is 
clearly applicable to the current situation in Ukraine:

"The great danger lies in the enormous gap that remains between the 
scale of these conspiracies 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 mobilized consciously and collectively."

As long as Ukrainian defectors remain a silent, amorphous mass, living 
from day to day and trusting only their closest friends, the wheel of 
death will continue to turn, as more and more people will be kidnapped, 
more of those who managed to escape.

assembly.org.ua (Kharkiv)
- - - -
"Why and for whom do we fight, if no one needs us?"
mutinies and disobedience in the Russian army
Over the past year, the Russian military has seen several high-profile 
cases of soldiers rebelling against their superiors.

October 2024 : Russian military personnel in the Kursk region refused to 
obey their commanders' orders and launch an assault, complaining that 
they were being treated like cannon fodder and sent to fortified 
positions of the Ukrainian armed forces.
November 2024 : In one of the military units in the Novosibirsk region, 
servicemen mutinied and organized a prison break. In response to 
mistreatment by their superiors, the refusal to provide them with 
medical care, and, most importantly, plans to send them to the front, 
ten servicemen from the unit in the village of Kochenevo smashed 
windows, vandalized the barracks building, and then left the village in 
a taxi. According to the Kochenevo district authorities, security forces 
managed to capture four of them. Later, the pro-Kremlin newspaper Mash 
published descriptions of the servicemen, revealing their names, 
surnames, and other personal data.
February 2025 : A new rebellion breaks out among Russian soldiers 
refusing to go to the front. On February 28, about a hundred soldiers 
who, for various reasons, refused to go to the front (some of them, for 
example, walk with crutches due to injuries and also suffer from vision 
problems) were expelled from the Cheboksary region. They were forcibly 
loaded onto buses and housed in a camp located 20 km from the city's 
airport. There, they demanded to be allowed to write a demobilization 
report, but the administration decided to force them onto a plane bound 
for Rostov, from where they were to be transported to the front. In 
response, they revolted.
April 2025 : On April 18, on the territory of the Krasnodar garrison 
military command, more than 100 servicemen arrested for "voluntary 
abandonment of the unit" staged a mutiny upon learning that some 
detainees were being released for money, breaking through the fence, and 
fleeing, prompting the authorities to organize patrols in the territory. 
According to the servicemen's relatives, many of them were disabled. 
This was also confirmed by local residents in their comments on this news:
"They are not all here. The boys who returned from military service with 
injuries-many have already closed their cases-but they are not allowed 
to leave. Not only those who fled or did not return on time are being 
released, but also those who have been hospitalized for a long time, 
thanks to certain commanders. Many of them are there with varying 
degrees of incapacity, but we must get rid of them; why waste the new 
ones? They are not letting them go home, in violation of internal 
regulations." It's worse than in the region. Some treat their cattle 
better than the living conditions there, pardon the comparison."
June 2025 : Near the town of Nizhnia Duvanka in the Luhansk region, 
several Russian deserters killed the commander of a military police 
platoon and two of his subordinates, after which they fled the front.
The Voice of the Anarchists (Telegram Channel)

Interview on the current situation of deserters from the Ukrainian army
Vladislav deserted the Ukrainian army and now lives in a European 
country. We asked him a few questions to clarify the current situation 
for deserters.

1) You are a deserter who fled the Ukrainian front across the Romanian 
mountains. You managed to escape, both you and your cat. How are you 
feeling now? Are you both okay?
Hello. Overall, much better than in Ukraine. True, I sometimes 
experience attacks from SBU[Security Service of Ukraine]officers, 
including politically motivated provocations and insults, but EU 
residents treat me very well; I have not noticed any violations of my 
rights by EU citizens during my entire stay. In July 2025, my cat Persik 
went out for a walk in the street and did not return. Only after 
registering his microchip did the animal shelter contact me to inform me 
that, according to the person who brought him to the shelter, my cat 
Persik had been hit by a car. However, the bodily injuries found on him 
could indicate that this was an intentional act. I'm gathering evidence. 
But overall, the cat is alive and well, with no after-effects.

2) Forced conscription into the army is in effect in Ukraine. Many men 
refuse to serve in the army. Many also want to desert. Do you have any 
advice for them?
Yes. Upon arrival at the recruitment center, refuse to undergo a medical 
examination to determine your fitness for military service. If the 
situation is critical, I recommend feigning mental illness, for example, 
by soiling your cell with your feces. Personally, in Ukraine, I always 
carried a razor blade with me to cut my wrists in case I was sent to a 
Ukrainian army training center. These methods are effective: the 
employees of the training center are obliged to send the person for a 
psychiatric examination, which increases the chances of escape. I do not 
encourage anyone to self-harm. You can leave the psychiatric hospital, 
but not from a coffin. Personally, if I ended up being interned in a 
training center, I planned to cut my wrists and defile the center's 
premises with my excrement. Since childhood, I have suffered from two 
illnesses: obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit 
hyperactivity disorder, but in Ukraine, these pathologies are not enough 
to exclude you from military service. After all, the military is 
surprised that such individuals shoot at army commanders. However, the 
mere fact that these individuals have access to weapons can encourage 
their use, even in the case of a simple offense from the army's higher-ups.

3) How can Europeans help deserters?
EU citizens already provide significant assistance to deserters. 
However, legally, an EU decision on the inadmissibility of the 
extradition and expulsion of deserters would help prevent the torture to 
which these people are subjected in Ukraine. I agree that offenders who 
committed crimes before fleeing Ukraine must be punished. However, the 
judgment handed down by the Ukrainian court can be enforced on EU 
territory. This would be a guarantee against political persecution. 
Ukraine and Russia are inspired by the practices of the Soviet KGB and 
use cases from ten years ago to put pressure on undesirables. In 
addition, these countries can fabricate criminal cases to exert pressure 
and stop actions that do not please these totalitarian regimes. I urge 
the EU not to recognize the convictions handed down by Russian and 
Ukrainian courts against men during the war. These cases are often 
politically motivated.

4) A new law is currently being debated in Ukraine. It will worsen the 
situation of deserters who have fled to Europe. What exactly does this 
law provide?
Yes. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko, whose brother defected 
to London during the war, has introduced a bill in the Verkhovna Rada 
that criminalizes fleeing Ukraine and failing to repatriate deserters 
within 90 days of the law's adoption. The goal is to transfer 
jurisdiction over these criminal cases to the SBU and propose trying 
them in absentia. In fact, the Ukrainian totalitarian regime plans to 
equate fleeing Ukraine with treason against the state, participation in 
organized crime, or crimes against world peace and security. This 
demonstrates that the SBU is beginning to resemble the KGB of the USSR 
and is being used to exert pressure on those who displease the Ukrainian 
totalitarian regime. Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada granted the SBU the 
right to submit bills to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on its own 
initiative, which I consider an usurpation of state power, since, 
according to the Ukrainian Constitution, lawmaking falls under the 
exclusive competence of the Verkhovna Rada. In fact, the Ukrainian 
regime allows the SBU to submit laws that benefit the regime, which is 
unacceptable for an executive branch.
In order to prevent the persecution of defectors, I am creating the 
Order of Resistance to the Ukrainian Totalitarian Regime by legal means.

5) Does this mean that these laws will give EU police and courts the 
right to prosecute deserters within the EU?
Yes and no. If the bill is adopted, the authorities will be able to try 
deserters in absentia on Ukrainian territory and, based on a Ukrainian 
court decision, demand that EU authorities declare them internationally 
wanted in order to extradite them to Ukraine. Since trials in absentia 
directly violate fair trial guarantees, in particular Article 6 of the 
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 
any sentences handed down in these cases will be condemnatory. The 
totalitarian regime's goal is to gain as much cannon fodder as possible 
from the EU and will do everything possible to achieve this.
Of course, EU countries can ignore extradition requests for these types 
of crimes, as they are political in nature, but my personal opinion is 
that EU authorities will comply with such requests.

6) Could these laws also lead to the deportation of deserters to Ukraine?
Yes. But these are not deportations, but extraditions as criminals under 
Ukrainian law. These people are unlikely to end up at the front, because 
immediately after being handed over to the Ukrainian authorities, they 
will be imprisoned to serve their sentences. However, in Ukrainian 
prisons, they face threats of torture by the authorities, as well as 
pressure to sign contracts for detainees. If they sign such contracts, 
these people are immediately sent to the front to fight the Russian 
armed forces. It is not expected that these people will serve in the 
army without directly participating in combat.

7) What other problems will deserters face if these laws are implemented 
in Ukraine?
They will have to obtain refugee status. Only this status can prevent 
the Ukrainian authorities' extradition request from being granted. 
Obtaining this status can take years, or even decades in some cases. As 
long as the deserter retains his or her asylum status, he or she will 
not be allowed to work or leave the country where he or she filed his or 
her application. His or her place of residence will be determined by the 
immigration authorities, and he or she will receive a minimal allowance 
and reduced health insurance covering only medical emergencies. In 
effect, the asylum seeker is deprived of the fundamental rights that 
allow him or her to move freely within the EU, work, and freely choose 
his or her place of residence. The funds provided to asylum seekers are 
barely enough to cover their personal expenses, except for food, hygiene 
products, and minimal basic needs. Excerpt from the Anti-Militarist 
Initiative
blog

Russia: Sabotage and Insubordination on the Rise
In the first six months of 2025, as many people have already been 
convicted of sabotage as in the whole of 2024. Most of them are minors 
or under 25 years old.

October 21, 2025
The publication "Vazhnye historii / Vazhnye istorii" ("Important 
Stories") revealed that in the first six months of 2025, 48 people were 
sentenced to real terms for sabotage under Article 281 of the Russian 
Criminal Code. This is as many as in all of 2024, the journalists write, 
citing court data.
The majority of those convicted were minors and people under the age of 
25. Twelve people aged 16-17 were sentenced, and another 24 aged 18-24. 
Most of those sentenced received prison terms ranging from 11 to 15 years.
Since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, 170 teenagers aged 14 
to 17 and 875 people under 25 have been convicted of treason, espionage, 
terrorism, and sabotage. They constitute a third of all those convicted 
on these charges since 2022.

Important Stories has also identified other trends. For example, there 
has been an increase in the number of people convicted of 
terrorism-related offenses. "In the first half of 2025, 654 people were 
convicted of these offenses, which is 1.8 times more than in the same 
period the previous year," the publication states.
A similar increase is observed in the context of articles for 
"extremism" (Articles 280, 280.1-4, 282, and 282.1-4 of the Russian 
Criminal Code). 504 people were convicted in the first 6 months of 2025, 
which is 1.5 times more than in the same period in 2024. This is the 
highest figure since at least 2018.
Russians are also increasingly being convicted for refusing to perform 
military service (Article 328, Part 1, of the Criminal Code). During the 
first half of 2025, 580 people were sentenced under this article, more 
than in 2023 and 2024, but still at the same level as in 2022, the year 
the authorities announced the mobilization.
Sources: Important Stories , Doxa
- - - -
A contribution on military mobilization in Russia
How is the mobilization of soldiers going in Putin's Russia? How much 
coercion, harassment, and pressure do men of military age who are sent 
to the front face? How is the Russian population, and especially the 
working class, reacting to all this? Since we often ask ourselves these 
kinds of questions, we asked a Russian anarchist to give us a clearer 
picture of the situation. He responded with a brief summary of the 
situation.
The censorship and war propaganda implemented by the Putin regime seek 
to conceal the terrible reality from the rest of the world. On the other 
hand, we are witnessing pro-Ukrainian propaganda portraying the Russian 
population as a mass of loyal supporters of Putinism, voluntarily 
rushing into war. It is sometimes difficult to perceive and grasp the 
full extent of the reality. That is why we consider the testimony of our 
Russian comrade to be a valuable tool.

Notes on Mobilization in Russia

Generally speaking, it should be noted from the outset that the vast 
majority of Russians have a rather pacifist mentality. Since the Soviet 
era, many have repeated: "If only war did not exist!" Many contemporary 
Russians experienced the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya as a 
collective trauma. Popular songs have even been composed on this theme, 
recounting the senseless deaths of students that occurred then. Many 
Russians absolutely do not want to relive this painful experience. Even 
supporters of Putin's government claimed (until 2022, of course) that 
Putin would "guarantee a climate of peace." It is clear that there is a 
significant militaristic minority, which currently enjoys a kind of 
monopoly on information in Russia thanks to military censorship, but it 
is clearly not the majority.
However, it is also important to note that the flip side of the Russian 
pacifist mentality is a negative attitude called "philistinism." 
Russians are against the war, but they are unwilling to actively oppose 
it. This is especially true in a situation where the government has 
imposed strict military censorship, is massively imprisoning those 
critical of Russia's military actions, and is brutally dispersing 
anti-war protests, arresting tens of thousands of people. Under these 
circumstances, the average Russian is more inclined to keep a low 
profile and not express their opinion. It is precisely for this reason 
that many opinion polls report high support for the war and for Putin: 
however, this data is false, because those who are "for" it have nothing 
to fear, while those who are "against" it risk losing their freedom 
under the current regime. But what society is even less willing to do is 
go straight to war. Putin knows this and is therefore trying to conduct 
a less draconian mobilization than the one carried out in Ukraine. The 
current mobilization is mainly affecting the provinces, not Moscow, 
where the visibility of the war's victims can remain minimal.

At the same time, Putin's government is trying to implement conscription 
in a subtle way: officially, it does not send young men performing their 
compulsory military service to the front. However, these men, once 
called up, are in fact forced to sign such a contract. As you know, 
humiliation, torture, and harassment of subordinates are common practice 
in the Russian military. There have been high-profile cases of young men 
who died during their military service due to intolerable living 
conditions or after being injured in beatings. All of these men are 
effectively held hostage and forced to "voluntarily" go to war. There 
have also been cases where the Russian authorities have deceived 
randomly selected individuals, convincing them to go under the pretext 
of "earning money," and then, after getting them to sign false 
documents, send them to the front without even informing their relatives.

Russians don't want to go to war, which is why many of them don't show 
up at military recruitment offices; many also try to fake an illness. 
For example, I know a former classmate who was an excellent student and 
managed to enroll in university. But after receiving his conscription 
notice, he decided to break his leg... Many also prefer to avoid 
mobilization abroad, but the Russian government is working to eliminate 
this possibility before 2026.
Protests against mobilization have also taken place, such as in 
Dagestan. Of particular note is the movement of wives of mobilized 
soldiers, who even demonstrated in front of the Kremlin walls. This is 
all the more remarkable given that some of them, initially in favor of 
the war, are now demanding the demobilization of soldiers. These were 
mostly peaceful rallies, which nevertheless attracted widespread attention.
There have also been more violent forms of protest against the 
mobilization, such as arson attacks and attacks on military recruitment 
offices across the country. One such incident occurred in the city of 
Ust-Ilimsk[Irkutsk region]. Ruslan Zinin, a logging truck driver from 
Ust-Ilimsk, lost his 19-year-old school friend Danil while performing 
his compulsory military service at the very beginning of the war in 
March 2022. After the mobilization was announced, Zinin learned that his 
cousin had received a summons.

On September 26, 2022, fearing for his younger brother's fate, Zinin 
went to the military enlistment office and, according to an eyewitness, 
tried to understand why his friend had received a summons even though he 
had not served in the army. In response, the military enlistment office 
staff insulted him. A little later that day, Ruslan returned to the 
enlistment office, this time armed with a sawed-off shotgun, and opened 
fire. For this, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

Excerpt from the Anti-Militarist Initiative blog

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4547
_________________________________________
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