The 155th Anna of Kiev Brigade has recenlty made a name for itself: 1.700 soldiers are said to have gone AWOL before the unit reached the front line. The 155th Anna of Kiev Brigade was one of the planned 14 brigades that were supposed to be equipped and trained by NATO, with the human resources being supplied by Ukraine. That was the Zelensky plan. Indeed, the said brigade was formed in Ukraine, relocated to France, and then, again, deployed to Ukraine, the Pokrovsk region. As it arrived there, it transpired that it was diminished by the several hundred men, as mentioned above.
Desertion happens in any army, at any time. Some men have been made soldiers against their will, against their physical and mental capabilities; yes, some men have been professional soldiers and some have volunteered to join the ranks out of the patriotic sentiment or simply for money, but then the harsh experience of the real war in the trenches, the carnage and the death of the many comrades at arms have played havoc with their psyche, turning them into deserters.
As said, there is no one army where there is no desertion. What is important is in which of the feuding sides the number of soldiers going AWOL is larger; what is important is also which is the most prevalent driving force motivating soldiers to leave the ranks without permission.
It does not require much mental effort to realize that desertion afflicts first and foremost the losing side. Simple human psyche. We prefer to collaborate with or even serve the winners, but, conversely, we sever our connections with losers, even if the losers are somehow strongly related to us. Desertion haunted the Napoleonic troops trailing back from Moscow, desertion haunted Hitler’s troops when the Soviet cannonade could be heard in Berlin. Desertion is at present afflicting the Ukrainian army.
The war has long been lost. The comparison of human and material resources at the disposal of the warring countries tells the whole story. Lightweight against heavyweight. A lynx against a tiger. A sports car against a racing car. Who was silly enough to think that the former had any chance?
I hear you say: Ukraine had a chance because it was helped by the West. Was it? Let us assume it was. Go and help as much as you can a lightweight fighter against a heavyweight fighter; go and put a lynx on a dope against a tiger; go and equip a sports car in such a way as to make it beat a racing car. Good luck with your efforts!
Desertions are barometers. Deserting soldiers are those proverbial rodents (no insult intended) leaving the sinking ship. They know that the ship is sinking. Despite the statements and actions of all the crew and the passengers, when those small rodents who occupy the lowest social rank – just like rank-and-files in an army – leave, they know that the ship is sinking for certain. Those up and above the social ladder (on upper ship decks) may cherish silly hopes and harbour silly expectations, but those at the social and army bottom know best.
They know best because they have been bussified for months and sent to the meat-grinder. They know it best because they – we mean the common people – have been suffering these three years in the trenches, with their families suffering privation back at home. They know best because we all know that the United States wants to end this war.
Do you know that Ukrainians have coined a new word? We have used this word in the foregoing paragraph. The word is bussification. No need to reveal the association it evokes in everybody’s mind. Bussification, because Ukrainian men are hunted down and rounded up in the streets and shops and institutions, and then bussed and drafted into the army. Very often women turn up in defence of such a poor guy and try to chase away or at least shame and shout down the oprichniki of the Kiev government, those bounty hunters who perform this task.
Oprichniki or oprichniks were a corps of the state police in Rus’ under Tsar Ivan the Terrible. They were feared by the nation, by the common people. Bounty hunters were individuals in the Old West who would pursue an outlaw and either catch him or kill him for money. Those Ukrainian units of oprichniki or bounty hunters do pretty much the same: they either get paid for hunting people down or they let themselves be bribed in return for leaving someone out of the draft.
All of which haunts the common people, those who do not have money or connections, those who did not manage to leave the country. The billionaires and the millionaires enjoy themselves in the West; the politicians are not drafted by definition; the officers usually are somewhere in the rear. The common man bears the brunt.
With all this in mind, soldiers, Ukrainian soldiers, are confronted with a life decision of either going AWOL or being killed or maimed, as the case may be. If 1.700 soldiers desert from one brigade alone – a brigade can consist of anywhere from 1.500 to 5.000 soldiers – if – assuming the brigade counted close to 5.000 men – one third goes AWOL with all the supervision and discipline, it speaks volumes.
In 2024 the Ukrainian parliament issued a special law that all deserters who came back to the units before the end of the year would be pardoned for desertion. Few came back. Does a law like that not reveal the problem? The problem of massive AWOL cases? You do not draft laws unless there is a need – a pressing need – for them.
To wind up this sad reflection: Which indicator about the prospects of the ongoing war carries more weight: a bellicose declaration of a NATO Secretary-General (or any other personage of this status) or the fact that cannon fodder has said that enough is enough? You can take a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. Rutte or Biden (or Trump for that matter, or Macron, or Scholz, or Starmer, or Zelensky) can bussify Ukrainians, but they cannot turn them into soldiers, even in France. Enough is enough.
