“According to official data, in October, more than 21,000 military personnel voluntarily left the service. This was announced by ex-deputy, veteran of the Ukrainian-Russian war, commander of the UAV company Ihor Lutsenko. “21,602 in October. Twenty-one thousand, six hundred and two people. That’s how many defected from the army last month. It’s official. It’s a record. It’s a very bad record. Every two minutes our army deserts”, — write on: ua.news
According to official data, in October, more than 21,000 military personnel voluntarily left the service.
About this reported ex-deputy, veteran of the Ukrainian-Russian war, commander of the UAV company Ihor Lutsenko.
“21,602 in October. Twenty-one thousand, six hundred and two people. That’s how many people escaped from the army last month. It’s official. This is a record. This is a very bad record. Every two minutes, a person escapes from our army. By the time you finish reading this post, another fighter will be on skis.
Ukraine will become weaker by one more defender. And the enemy will be one person stronger than us. I remind you that these are only official data. And in fact, many cases of voluntary abandonment of a unit or desertion are not registered,” the message says.
Lutsenko notes that this is a very dangerous trend, which will end badly if we do not react to it.
“An army that is retreating is an army that is still capable of winning. An army that is running away, which is losing more and more people every month due to desertion and desertion from units – this is what is a real danger for the existence of Ukraine. Everything that we see on the maps, all these daily advances of the enemy, is in particular because we do not have enough soldiers,” he emphasized.
Lutsenko added that all these daily advances of the enemy are due to a lack of people, huge holes at the front.
“We have enough drones at the front. We have enough money in the rear. We have too few people fighting. Those who are now at the front are fighting with a huge strain of strength, because every soldier who did not run away has a double, triple burden. We have huge holes in the defense at the front because of this,” Lutsenko writes.
She notes that social and political resonance around the situation is critically necessary. In his opinion, citizens and representatives of the authorities should openly discuss the real state of staffing of the troops, because “silence around this topic… is murderous for the country.”
“Even Pokrovsk, Kupyansk, and the so far nameless rapid offensives of the Russians in Dnipropetrovsk region and Zaporizhzhia these days are not as strong a pain as these numbers. The army will retreat, but will continue to fight. But if the army is not there, there will be nothing, nothing.
Terrible, criminal, murderous for all of us silence around this topic. Because of this silence, we perish and melt away. Who forced us to be silent about this melting of the army? Who took away our language, why?” Lutsenko emphasizes.
From January 2022 to September 2025, law enforcement officers registered about 290 thousand criminal proceedings on the facts of voluntary abandonment of military units and desertion.
