In the first 10 months of this year, 19 922 criminal proceedings were opened for desertion — 3.7 times more than in the same period last year.
This was reported by the digital government data analysis service Opendatabot.
At the same time, only 3% of desertion cases this year were served with suspicion, and in 1.3% of cases the case reached court.
This year, 41 950 criminal proceedings have been opened for AWOL — twice as many as for desertion. Cases under Article 407 increased 3.3 times over the year.
At the same time, cases involving AWOL are also being investigated more effectively: suspicion was received in 13% of cases, and 7% reached court.
- In August 2024, the Rada adopted Law No. 11322, which decriminalizes desertion and desertion for the first time. And already in October, courts in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn, Transcarpathia, and Ternopil regions issued almost a hundred decisions in cases of desertion not to imprison military personnel, but to allow them to return to service.
- The law on the restoration of payments for military personnel who returned after the first AWOL was passed on November 21, and a week later it was signed by the president. In the first week after the adoption of this law, 3 thousand people returned to service.
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