Desertion in Russia

The Heavy Toll of Desertion from the Russian Army introduces The Deserter, a powerful long-form piece by Sarah A. Topol in The New York Times Magazine. Excerpt from The Heavy Toll:

It’s impossible to know the real statistics of desertion. Mediazona, an independent Russian investigative outlet in exile, says there have been almost 7,400 AWOL cases in military courts since the start of the mobilization, but experts agree that’s only a small fraction of the number who have tried to escape. This is while the Russian authorities have made it more and more difficult to avoid service.

Last year, the authorities also raised the maximum age of conscription to 30 from 27, which will increase the number in the pool to at least 700,000 by 2025. In April, Mediazona wrote that the rise in the number of deserters in 2024 was “unprecedented.” But soldiers most frequently receive suspended sentences so they can return to base, apologize and be sent straight back to the front line.

The actual number of deserters is most likely much higher because few commanding officers want to officially declare a subordinate AWOL; they don’t want to get knocked by superiors for losing track of a man. So everyone tries to solve the situation on their own to avoid officially entering a soldier’s name into the system.