Ukraine faces military desertions as Russian invasion grinds through 5th year

[0:00] AMNA NAWAZ, Ukraine's military says it's facing a growing problem of desertion. [0:04] Experts estimate approximately 150,000 service members may be missing from their units, [0:10] as the war grinds through its fifth year. Soldiers cite extreme fatigue caused by long [0:15] deployments without rotation, anger at orders seen as suicide missions and forced mobilization. [0:22] Special correspondent Jack Hewson reports on one young soldier who says these pressures [0:27] pushed him beyond his breaking point. We've changed the names and voices of some of the [0:31] subjects in this report to protect their identities. [0:34] Across Ukraine's towns and villages, tens of thousands of former soldiers hide from a duty [0:41] they can no longer face. For many, like Andrey, it wasn't always this way. [0:46] He signed up to fight willingly in 2023. [0:51] I couldn't just sit there, healthy and young, and not go defend my country. [0:55] I thought there was something to fight for. [0:56] When Andrey arrived at the front in Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, he was just 18 years old. [1:02] But his youthful enthusiasm to defend his country quickly turned. [1:07] At first, he was sheltered from frontline missions, according to his comrade Sasha. [1:11] He was the youngest among us. To be honest, he was like a child. [1:19] He didn't understand where he had come from. He was a little confused. [1:23] As he became an accomplished fighter, Andrey's youthful enthusiasm and patriotic zeal would be [1:28] tainted by his perception of the battalion's leadership. [1:32] I thought people would be valued. I thought there would be some kind of support there. [1:36] Well, I got there and I realized that the commanders were sending people to their deaths. [1:39] It was crazy. [1:41] It was this allegedly flippant attitude towards life and the pressures of the command that he [1:46] believes led to the suicide of a friend, Denis Boiko, at a frontline position in early 2024. [1:52] I went into the kitchen and saw the soldier lying there, his head gone. I just saw that and froze. [1:59] I just stared at him and that was it. I couldn't even understand anything. I just stared at him, [2:04] his head gone. It was just crazy. [2:08] Boiko recorded his suicide on the eve of a dangerous assault mission he didn't want to complete. [2:13] He filmed the suicide note on his phone before shooting himself in the head with his assault rifle [2:18] on camera. The man couldn't take the pressure because the commander put a lot of pressure on him. [2:23] The man shot himself and he was only 20 years old. [2:27] Chief Sergeant Volodymyr Tracz was also present at the time. He agreed with Andrey that Boiko had [2:32] been pressured, but he said other factors were also in play. He had a fight over his girlfriend, [2:38] a little alcohol, a little unprofessional work by a psychologist with him the day before, [2:43] and plus the pressure from the command. And this young man simply couldn't cope. [2:48] Deeply traumatized by the incident, Andrey's mental health would deteriorate over 2024, [2:53] as he was sent on ever more dangerous missions, often stranded on the hard front without adequate [2:58] ammunition or even food and water. They fried snakes there and ate them. I drank water from puddles [3:05] through a straw. I wanted to drink so badly. What would soon prompt Andrey's desertion were a series [3:10] of catastrophic missions in Krasnoharivka in 2024. Missions, he says, convinced him he could no [3:16] longer trust his commanders. We have a battalion. We just entered Krasnoharivka in 2024, and our [3:23] battalion was immediately bombed, everything. It was just awful what was happening. Just a few people [3:29] survived. One soldier next to me is suffocating. The other has no legs. The commander says, [3:35] evacuation will be in a couple of days. He says, well, that's how it is. He says, [3:39] you can't do anything. Just endure it. I'm in shock. I'm sitting there thinking, what's going on? [3:44] Lucky to survive that bombardment, Andrey would eventually be wounded in a drone attack. [3:49] After only a few days in hospital, he returned to the front where his commanding officer told [3:53] him he would be deployed on an assault mission the following day. This was his breaking point. [4:01] He said, you're going to storm the building. I say, no, that's it. I'm done. I say, [4:07] I endured two and a half years. Endured, endured, endured. And now I say you're a scumbag. Will you [4:12] come with me? He said, no. That's it. Then the sergeant took my machine gun because I wanted to [4:18] shoot him, our commander. They took my machine gun away from me. The commander just said, [4:23] if you are killed, it doesn't matter. I will send new soldiers. He's not a commander. He's just a monster. [4:28] The commander Andrey is referring to is Major Oleksii Kucherenko. Andrey's comrade, [4:34] Sasha, also complained that Kucherenko's decisions had repeatedly cost lives and almost cost him his [4:39] own. After returning from one mission, having lost men, he said Major Kucherenko merely mocks them. [4:45] He said, guys, you fought badly. Not many of you died. Couldn't you fight better? No? Then we'll [4:52] replace you and send you to even deeper places. [4:55] CHIEF SERGEANT TACH also identified Major Kucherenko as a factor in Andrey's eventual [5:01] desertion, but said he was symptomatic of a broader failure. [5:04] I can name Major Kucherenko, the battalion commander at the time, but I emphasize this is [5:11] a systemic problem. I must say that Major Kucherenko's fault, in my opinion, lies in his incompetence [5:18] and in supporting this system that doesn't work. If you talk to Major Kucherenko, he will say that he [5:23] is a great guy, and the company commander is a fool. Sorry for being frank. Well, and so on. [5:29] The company commander will say that he is a great guy, and that it is the sergeant who gave the order, [5:35] et cetera. [5:35] Amid the grim brutality of the front, throughout last year, Ukraine saw a sharp rise in soldiers [5:42] deserting. Thousands have walked off of the front line. Soldiers and some commanders describe [5:47] exhausted infantry units collapsing rotations, forced conscription and resentment at leadership failures. [5:53] If, in 2022, 2023, we had one or two, maximum three people in the unit who became deserters, [6:01] then, since 2024, there have been tens of thousands across the country. And this means that this is a [6:07] systemic problem. Why is it now that the numbers are escalating so quickly with regards to desertion? [6:14] The reason is, again, very simple. Mobilization, how it is carried out. [6:20] The catch is referring to the forced mobilization that has seen thousands of men, in some cases, [6:26] literally pulled off of the streets into minibuses, a phenomenon dryly referred to as busification, [6:32] and then shipped on to the front. [6:33] And when human rights are violated, you should not expect that this person will become a super [6:43] patriotic hero. [6:44] MALCOLM BRABANTEBURG, Former U.S. Secretary of State, [6:47] Shortly after our interview with Andri, we discovered that he had been arrested by military [6:51] police and, despite his debilitating PTSD, was being forced back to front-line duty. [6:57] He managed to talk to us briefly over a video call at a detention center in Dnipro. [7:01] There are people like me here. They were deserters, and they were also caught. Some were caught by [7:09] military registration office employees and brought here. I don't know what they're doing here. I am [7:14] very angry, very angry. They don't want to send me for treatment. I tell them I have torn ligaments [7:20] in my body and a traumatic brain injury. My eardrums are ruptured. I have shrapnel inside me. And they say, [7:27] you'll come to the battalion like this, and only then will we decide what to do. People here treat [7:33] me badly. [7:37] Before we could continue our interview further, Andri was forced to stop filming by the guards [7:41] at the detention center. He was taken back to the front line a few days later. Within weeks, [7:46] we learned he had deserted once again. Responding to the allegations made in this report in a written [7:52] statement, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said that any instances of misconduct were [7:56] categorically unacceptable and had no place in their ranks. Additionally, they stated that [8:01] the fact should be reported for legal assessment, and if confirmed, appropriate disciplinary action [8:06] should be taken. We made multiple requests for comment from the command of the 21st Special [8:10] Purposes Battalion and from Major Kuchurenko, but received no response. Despite the injustices described [8:17] by soldiers in this report, all stress their pride in their service and in their national cause. But [8:23] forcing men to fight against their will is compounding desertion numbers and degrading morale. [8:29] For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Jack Hewson in Ukraine. [8:41] Support journalism you trust. Support PBS News. Donate now, or even better, [8:47] start a monthly contribution today.