The Russian military is facing a wave of deserting soldiers as the country's 21-month war in Ukraine drags on.
Idite Lesom, a Georgia-based group that aids troops attempting to leave Russian President Vladimir Putin's army, told The Moscow Times in an article published on Tuesday that it had experienced an 89 percent increase in requests for assistance over the past few months.
Grigory Sverdlin, founder and leader of Idite Lesom, told the outlet that most soldiers who decide to desert make their decision after being wounded in battle and treated in Russian hospitals. A total of 577 soldiers made requests from September to November.
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Sergei Krivenko, director of human rights group Citizen, Army, Rights, told The Moscow Times that war-weary Russian troops were realizing that their prospects for being rotated out of service were increasingly slim one year after Putin mobilized reservists.
"A year has passed since the beginning of mobilization," Krivenko said. "If some people still had hopes that they could go home after a certain period of service, there are no such illusions now."
"Servicemen see that there is no rotation, that even seriously wounded men are sent back to the front after being hospitalized," he added.
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newsweek.com |
