Ukrainian law enforcement officers opened almost 290 000 criminal cases for unauthorized abandonment of a military unit (AWOL) and desertion from January 2022 to September 2025.
This is stated in the response of the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office to the inquiry of Ukrainian Truth.
The Prosecutorʼs General Office reported that from January 2022 to September 2025, 235 646 criminal proceedings were registered for desertion, 53,954 for desertion.
For comparison: during January 2022 — September 2024, law enforcement officers registered about 60 thousand cases for unauthorized abandonment of the unit, almost 30 000 for desertion.
- Thanks to the simplified return-to-service mechanism for those who left the military unit for the first time, more than 29 000 servicemen returned to service from November 29, 2024 to August 2025.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.