Since the start of the Ukraine war, there have been reports of the lack of morale in Putin's army. Now there are said to be increasing desertions of Russian soldiers in the Kherson region.
Kherson – The fighting in the Ukraine war continues – including in the Kherson region in the south of the country. Russian soldiers there apparently refuse to fight or even leave their place of deployment, as a Ukrainian resistance group reported on Thursday (April 11). The Russian army is losing “mass” soldiers in the region.
Ukraine War: Reports of mass disappearances of Russian soldiers in the Kherson region
Russian forces recently managed to advance close to the Ukrainian-occupied bridgehead in eastern Kherson, US war experts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported. Kiev's troops had established the bridgeheads in Kherson months ago, possibly in order to launch the offensive towards Crimea from there at a later date. According to ISW, Ukraine was recently able to hit several Russian command posts on the front line in Kherson. The Atesh partisan movement sees another development in the oblast: “Russian soldiers are disappearing en masse in the Kherson region,” it said on Telegram on Thursday.
Some soldiers previously listed as SOCH were later found in Kherson, reports Atesh. SOCH corresponds to the English military term AWOL (“absent without official leave”), i.e. the unauthorized removal from the troops, and thus describes deserters. According to agents, “Russian Guard units were ordered to capture Ukrainian partisans who were transmitting information about the locations of Russian occupation forces personnel. Missing personnel of the Russian troops are also identified on site,” the Atesh report continued. The information could not initially be independently verified.
Atesh is active in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine and on Russian territory and also cited official communications from the Russian military group “Dnepr” in his report. They reported that Russian soldiers refused to carry out combat missions and deliberately left their locations. Since the start of the Ukraine War, there have been repeated reports of low morale in the Russian army.
Ukraine has a personnel problem: lack of rotation principle and high losses
It's not just the Russian army that is lacking soldiers. Ukraine also has a personnel problem: there is still no functioning rotation principle for the front, and many soldiers have been killed or wounded since the beginning of the war. The
New York Times
estimates that 70,000 soldiers died on the Ukrainian side and between 100,000 and 120,000 were injured. “The enemy outnumbers us seven to ten times, and we lack personnel,” said Ukrainian commander Yuriy Sodol, according to
SZ
.
Kiev recently lowered the minimum age for calling up reservists to 25 years. A law passed by the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday also increases the penalties for conscientious objectors. In addition, a passage that provided for soldiers to be discharged from the army after 36 months of service will also be eliminated in the future. Ukrainian soldiers at the front told AFP they were in “shock” over the change.