‘Tens of Thousands of Russian Soldiers’ have Deserted Their Units Since 2022. ‘Barents Observer’ Says

Paul Goble

    Staunton, Apr. 6 – Based on its own survey of court decisions in northwestern Russia where there have been more than 800 cases and reports from other media outlets, The Barents observer concludes that “tens of thousands of Russian soldiers” have deserted their units and been hauled before military courts and sentenced to up to ten years behind bars.

    Before Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine in February 2022, such cases were rare, the news service says; but now they have increased dramatically in number since then with as many cases in a single month as occurred during an entire year in earlier years (thebarentsobserver.com/security/tens-of-thousands-of-russian-soldiers-have-fled-the-war/427843).

    The news service says there were 152 such cases in Murmansk Oblast in the first two years of the war, 114 in Arkhangelsk Oblast during the same period as well as 75 in the Komi Republic, and 136 in the Karelian Republic as well as almost as many more from regions neighboring these.  

    The Barents Observer says that the actual number of desertions is certainly larger as commanders try to hide what is going on and courts either charge men with other crimes or do not report what they are doing. But its documentation of this phenomenon shows that it is anything but limited and may very well be continuing to increase in size.