Desertion In Russian Army Reaches Record Level Since Start Of War

The British intelligence has shared the data.

Desertion of mobilised men from the Russian army has reached a record level. The largest number of all registered is in Moscow region.

This is reported by the Ministry of Defence of the UK on Twitter.

As noted in the summary, according to the independent Russian media group of ‘Mediazona’, in March 2024, Russian military courts sentenced a record number of 684 servicemen for desertion. The total number of cases since the ‘partial’ mobilisation in September 2022 is 7,400, with Moscow region recording the highest number of cases - 496.

According to the British intelligence service, a large number of soldiers who have been tracked down and handed over to a military court have been given suspended sentences and returned to their units and the front line. At the same time, the number of asylum requests in Western countries from Russian citizens evading military service has reached a record high.

‘Russian soldiers, including those forcibly recruited during the September 2022 partial mobilisation, are to remain in military service indefinitely with little likelihood of demobilisation,’ Britain's Ministry of Defence said.