(Tribune News Service) — On the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Roman Solomonyuk shocked his family when he volunteered to fight. But over two-and-a-half years later, he’s joined the growing number of Ukrainian soldiers who’ve called it quits.

First the 45-year-old dug trenches near the Russian border. Later, he shot down deadly Shahed drones. But then Roman fell out with a heavy-handed officer — and he’s now officially wanted for leaving his unit without permission.

Since 2022, Ukraine opened nearly 96,000 criminal cases against servicemen who abandoned their positions since Russia’s invasion, according to data from the prosecutor general’s office. That represents a sixfold increase over the past two years, and most of the cases were opened this year.

As Ukraine’s army struggles to hold back Russian advances, its manpower disadvantage is becoming more acute. Yet Kyiv is seeking to avoid a conscription drive that could disrupt the economy and unsettle a war-weary population. As a result, some troops are deployed indefinitely with no chance of a break. New troops to relieve them are scarce.

Many military personnel are simply exhausted, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a radio interview earlier this month. But the Ukrainian leader resisted setting a deadline to discharge troops, making seasoned soldiers wonder why they should risk their lives when millions of men — many of them younger — don’t serve. For them, going absent without leave, or AWOL, becomes the only respite, a chance to recuperate and tend to their family lives.

“Fatigue plays a role. Or there are personal circumstances, like when a soldier’s wife is giving birth,” said Oleksandr Hrynchuk of Ukraine’s military law enforcement service. “Or because there’s nobody else to lead the platoon and the commander didn’t grant leave.”

Kyiv doesn’t release the official number of soldiers who’ve gone AWOL. When asked how many servicemen are currently classified as such, Hrynchuk declined to comment on “sensitive information”, but noted that 40% to 60% of all AWOL cases return on their own. Desertion, when soldiers leave for good, is considered a graver crime but is less frequent, according to the prosecutor general’s data.

Roman Lykhachov, a Kharkiv-based lawyer for soldiers and veterans, estimates the number may stand at 100,000 or more, which isn’t a far cry from the 160,000 troops that Ukraine earlier said it still needs to mobilize. Some criminal cases on AWOL name up to 20-30 defendants, he said — and there are also soldiers who’ve left but have yet to be charged.

In comparison, Russian courts processed at least 10,000 cases against runaway soldiers so far, half of them this year, the Mediazona news website reported in August. While that’s a sign that Moscow struggles with the same issue, Russia can more easily absorb the drain on its manpower given that its population is almost four times that of Ukraine.

Compared to Russia’s harsh military discipline, there is less fear among Ukrainian soldiers of the consequences of leaving their posts or speaking out against commanders, said a Ukrainian military officer who declined to be named. He added that higher payments incentivize Moscow’s troops to stay put.

For Kyiv, it’s a conundrum that has yet to be solved. Last week, Zelenskiy promised soldiers on the run an amnesty if they returned to their units before Jan. 1, allowing them to avoid criminal charges.

Some 3,000 servicemen have returned to their units since that change took effect on Nov. 29, according to the military.

Red tape

These changes come as Ukrainian soldiers complain that they have had to fight not only the Russians but their own country’s rigid military bureaucracy.

In recent years Kyiv has taken strides to turn its top-heavy Soviet-style military into a more modern, nimble force. It adopted many NATO standards and allowed lower-ranking commanders to take more initiative. Soldiers are able to request a transfer to another unit via a mobile app.

But much of the army remains outdated and transferring from one combat unit to another still requires permission from the same commander soldiers want to get away from.

Roman joined the territorial defense expecting to fight the enemy in the most efficient way, but says he was quickly stymied by disorganization and bureaucracy. “If a business worked the same way, it would’ve quickly failed,” he said.

His company of six people had just a single Browning heavy machine gun, designed near the end of World War I, with which to shoot down Shaheds. Before they could start downing the Iranian-made drones, Roman and his comrades had to raise about 700,000 hryvnia ($17,000) to buy a used truck on which to drive the gun around, alongside a Starlink satellite antenna and other tools.

Nevertheless, Roman praised his immediate commanders as motivated and professional. But then a superior officer took a more active role, he said, issuing dangerous orders such as insisting that all servicemen be lodged together — meaning they could all be killed in a single strike.

Another brigade agreed to host their tiny company, but the transfer was obstructed. Unwilling to stay under their old commander and unable to switch to a new one, Roman and most of his colleagues went AWOL, demanding to be transferred to their unit of choice.

Even under a better commander, there’s no guarantee Roman’s company would continue shooting down drones. Increasingly, Ukraine’s commanders send specialized troops such as air defense operators to the frontlines as infantry, where reinforcements are most sorely needed. It’s another reason to leave.

According to one soldier who spoke on condition of anonymity, this was the fate of his comrade, an artillery specialist who was sent to an infantry unit on what he was told would be a month-long assignment. After discovering that his new role was made permanent without his knowledge, the artilleryman went AWOL.

For Roman, only by tackling entrenched bureaucracy will Ukraine’s military entice soldiers to stick by it. “Without reforms we have fewer people who are motivated to fight on,” he said.

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