Criminal Penalty Removed, Number Of Deceived Ukrainian Soldiers Called Membus 100 Thousand

Ukrainian military illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Stafff. Adriana Diaz-Brown)

JAKARTA - The number of Ukrainian soldiers who defect and desertion is said to have penetrated 100 thousand personnel, when the trend of the problem is considered worrying, while the punishment for the desertion has been removed.

Member of the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) Anna Skorokhod said the number of cases of defection and desertion in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces exceeded 100,000 personnel.

"Desert, defection - I will not mention the amount, but I will say - more than 100,000," he said in an interview with YouTube channel Novosti Live.

Earlier, military lawyers from their Veterans and Family Support Center Roman Likhachev said more than 100,000 Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers had left their units.

Meanwhile, according to Ukrainian media estimates, the total number of desertions in Ukraine has reached 170,000 soldiers.

Last Tuesday, Supreme Court Chief Justice Stanislav Kravchenko said there was a growing trend in the Ukrainian military, in which soldiers left without official permission and left their unity, as quoted by Ukrinform's The News Voice of Ukraine.

"We haven't analyzed the data yet, so I can't give specific figures, but there's a significant trend of increasing unauthorized absence from the military unit," he said.

Furthermore, he called desertion and refusal to follow orders an increasingly concerning matter. However, he did not give an exact figure, although he said the figures discussed by Ukrainian media were exaggerated.

When asked about the seriousness of the situation, Kravchenko confirmed it was indeed concerning.

It is known that the Ukrainian Parliament on July 16 passed a bill that abolished criminal penalties for desertion and left without permission for the first offense.