07/22/2025
In the temporarily occupied territories of our country, the number of cases of desertion among soldiers of the ROV has recently increased sharply. Moreover, it is Russian citizens who have signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense. In particular, in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions, the so-called catch brigades are already fully operational. In the event of detention, the fate of the fugitives is unenviable, but there are also successful cases.
More details about the situation can be found in the material on OBOZ.UA.
We had to involve civilians
One of the high-profile cases was the detention of three deserters from the Russian occupation forces in Khartsyzsk , Donetsk region.
The taxi driver, 20-year-old Dmytro, called the “police” and said he had accepted an order to the Uspenka checkpoint. The passengers turned out to be three men who, according to the taxi driver, may be deserters.
Security forces immediately arrived at the scene, stopped and blocked the car. Seeing them, the taxi passengers became very nervous. One of them, who was in the front seat, managed to break the door and rushed to run away. An employee of the occupation police allegedly noticed a knife in his hands and rushed after the serviceman, firing a warning shot into the air, but he did not stop. As a result, the fugitive was killed.
Later it turned out that all three were indeed wanted for leaving the military unit without permission. They were Ivan, a 32-year-old resident of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (he died during detention), Yevgeny, a 35-year-old resident of the Sverdlovsk Region, and Dmitry, a 29-year-old resident of Buryatia. All three had previously signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense of the aggressor country in Russian colonies and went to fight against Ukraine.
According to OBOZ.UA’s interlocutors in the occupation, this is far from the only case in the Russian-controlled part of the Donetsk region.
“There is nothing surprising in the fact that the taxi driver reacted like this. All the taxi drivers were “worked out”, they were instructed on how to act in such a situation. The thing is that there have been a lot of deserters. And the fastest way to get somewhere is by taxi,” our interlocutor said.
According to him, two groups of Russian deserters were recently detained in Mariupol : “There were convicts there too. In general, this category is now fleeing the front en masse, since they are assigned the role of cannon fodder. And they understand this perfectly well.”
A similar situation has developed in Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions . In the occupied part of the regions, there are now a lot of both mobilized Russians and contract soldiers.
According to our sources, Russian security forces are currently desperately searching for another group of five armed deserters (they disappeared in the Melitopol region). Three of them are also contract soldiers, but “forced.” The source claims that they were mobilized and then forced to sign a contract.
“The risk is justified”
In social networks dedicated to mobilization in Russia, there is currently a heated discussion of cases of desertion (unauthorized abandonment of units), both on the territory of the Russian Federation and in the occupied part of Ukraine.
All the interlocutors agree on one thing: if you don’t want to become a murderer and you expect to save your life, escape is the only way out. True, it is quite risky. Some are considering the option of surrendering to the Ukrainian military – but this is if the other option is no longer possible.
“In any case, the risk is justified,” “it’s better to hide than die,” “you can buy it back,” the Russians write.
By the way, regarding the redemption. The military personnel of the ROV are also offered this option. According to our interlocutors, the price of the issue is on average 200 thousand rubles (at the average bank rate, this is about 60 thousand UAH).
This year, the detention of an employee of the Russian military prosecutor’s office, who acted as a state prosecutor in the affairs of military personnel and, at the same time, helped deserters escape – he organized their departure from the combat zone in Ukraine , became a high-profile case.
Lieutenant Colonel of Justice Alexei Akhrameshin was detained in a unit of the Central Military District, from where he was seconded to the prosecutor’s office of the Joint Group of Forces. In Moscow, he was charged under Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (receiving a bribe).
The scheme was simple and effective: the “client” was included in the application for departure under the pretext of participating in the trial as a witness. During the inspection of the car, the prosecutor called the password, avoiding the inspection. After that, he delivered the deserters to Rostov-on-Don, where they were picked up by relatives.
The human rights project “Call to Conscience”, which helps Russian citizens avoid participating in the criminal war, also reported an increase in the number of deserters among Russians.
“More and more Russian soldiers are deserting to stay alive and not kill other people. It’s difficult and risky, but they have no other choice,” they say.
It’s not only the deserters who are weakening the roach army by their absence, but also the people necessary to hunt and catch them. Let’s hope we see a lot more of this.
The breakdowns in vary regions reported recently showed there are about twice as many turned up “missing” than killed. Sure, some that were killed were ignored in order to keep the numbers down but you could guess a substantial percent of those “missing” probably escaped the orcs.