'Disposable'. Over 25% of Russian army deserters are from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts
More than 25% of all officially wanted deserters and soldiers who have abandoned their units in the Russian army are from the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, according to the Ukrainian state project "I Want to Live."
The Center for Receiving Applications from Russian Military Personnel for Surrender published lists of soldiers who have been granted the status of deserters or AWOL (absent without leave) in Russia.
"While studying the database obtained from 'our guys' in one of the military districts of the Russian Armed Forces, we noted that the majority of deserters and AWOLs are military personnel from the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, where Russia is conducting illegal mobilization of the local population," the statement reads.
Specifically, 25.6% of all individuals listed as deserters and AWOLs are from the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. The second highest rate is from Rostov Oblast, with 2.7%.
12 out of the 20 units leading in the number of deserters are units formed in the occupied parts of Donbas.
The project "I Want to Live" noted that throughout the full-scale war, illegally mobilized residents of Donbas have been the "lowest caste" in the Russian army, often referred to as "disposable soldiers."
These soldiers are typically the first to be sent on assaults against fortified positions. For example, in 2022, when the Russian army attempted to capture Kyiv from the territories of Belarus, Kursk, and Bryansk oblasts, units of the terrorist organizations "DPR" and "LPR" were directed to assault positions in Donbas that had been fortified with concrete since 2014. Characteristically, these assaults were conducted with World War II-era helmets and Mosin rifles from 1891.
"Little has changed in three years of war. It is precisely the mobilized from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts who are dying en masse on the front lines in Bakhmut, Toretsk, near Avdiivka, and Pokrovsk. Their losses are not counted, and they are returned from captivity last," the project reported.
Additionally, most of the publicly known stories of Russian soldiers being "discarded" by their own army have occurred in the military units of the "people's militia of L\DPR." Therefore, it is not surprising that many of them are trying to escape from the Russian army, the project added, encouraging safe surrender by leaving an application in the project's chatbot.
In the summer of 2022, one of the prisoners of war revealed that fighters staged gas leaks in Luhansk high-rise buildings to force men hiding from "mobilization" out onto the streets.
On December 19, 2024, Ukraine's Defense Intelligence reported that Russia had lost 98,641 mobilized soldiers since the full-scale invasion began.
