Dozens of Ukrainian soldiers undergoing training in France have reportedly deserted. The desertions come as the Ukrainian military is currently struggling to hold back Russian advances.
The French army admitted that dozens of the 2,300 soldiers undergoing training in the country had deserted but claimed the figure was small in comparison to the number of troops that had been trained. As such, desertion is not considered a crime in France; none of the men who fled the Ukrainian army will face any criminal repercussions while in the country.
The soldiers all belong to the brigade “Anna of Kiev,” named after the second wife of France’s King Henry I. Ukrainian journalist Yuri Butusov claimed that 50 soldiers deserted in France and that, overall, 1,700 have fled before being sent to the front. Notably, Ukrainian land forces commander Mykhailo Drapatyi was confronted by the reports on January 6. He simply stated that he would not refute them.
Russian forces are currently advancing toward key cities and towns like the logistics hub Pokovsk. According to some estimates, as many as a million soldiers have been killed or seriously wounded in the war since it began in February of 2022.
Former North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said as far back as last May that Ukraine was clearly losing the war on the ground. As a result of heavy losses and desertions, including men fleeing the country, the Ukrainian military has begun kidnapping people from nightclubs and other venues and sending them into combat.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is also being pressured by the outgoing Biden-Harris regime to lower the conscription age to 18 to bolster troop numbers.
