Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny asked President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to sign a bill toughening punishment for disciplinary violations, including desertion.
He posted the corresponding appeal on his Telegram channel.
“I support the relevant legislative changes adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and ask the president to sign the law.
My opinion clearly reflects the position of the commanders of groups and military units, who demanded a systematic solution to this set of issues, ”wrote Zaluzhny.
As the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated, soldiers and officers should bear stricter responsibility for the unauthorized abandonment of positions and military units, as well as for refusing to use weapons and obey orders.
According to Zaluzhny, the army rests on discipline, and the current legislation does not comply with this principle.
The mildness of punishment, as the military leader said, turns into an increase in the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the line of contact.
According to Zaluzhny, the methods of explaining and persuading servicemen are adequate only in a peacetime period.
In conditions of war, “quick effective solutions” are in demand, says the Ukrainian military leader.
Instead of executions
At the moment, Zelensky has not commented in any way on the bill on toughening the disciplinary responsibility of the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Recall that the document was prepared by deputies of the pro-presidential Servant of the People party on December 8.
Five days later, it was adopted by Parliament and sent to the President for signature.
If Zelensky approves the bill, then for failure to comply with the order, a serviceman can be sentenced to imprisonment for a period of five to eight years (now - from three to seven years).
The authors also propose to increase the duration of arrest with a guardhouse from 10 to 15 days and significantly increase the fines for disobedience.
Along with this, the document provides for tougher penalties for various manifestations of "AWOL", official abuse, violating the rules of duty and drinking alcohol.
The new norm should be the examination of military personnel, persons liable for military service and reservists during training for alcohol, drugs or other intoxication.
The deputies from the Servant of the People explained the preparation of such a bill by the ambiguity of judicial practice in the field of punishing military personnel for disciplinary violations.
On December 20, Andrey Marochko, an officer of the People's Militia of the LPR, reported on his Telegram channel that Ukrainian servicemen were actively discussing the law on desertion.
According to him, the document caused them "an extremely negative reaction."
“Ordinary military personnel call it the legalization of illegal actions on the part of officers against subordinates.
Moreover, in their opinion, it is almost impossible to appeal against the accusations in the current situation.
Many call up their relatives, asking them to picket military registration and enlistment offices and state institutions,” Marochko wrote.
Experts interviewed by RT have a different look at the situation around the high-profile document.
For example, an associate professor at Moscow State University, political scientist Boris Mezhuev suggested that the bill on toughening responsibility for desertion and disciplinary violations was dictated by the desire of the Kyiv regime to reduce the number of extrajudicial killings and other forms of punishment in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“In the Ukrainian army, executions are carried out without trial or investigation, mainly for leaving positions.
In my opinion, Kyiv seeks to curb the massacres taking place in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the law on desertion,” says Mezhuev.
On December 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the mass executions that are practiced in the Ukrainian army for leaving combat positions.
Military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
© General Staff ZSU
“About leaving positions.
In Ukraine (you know about it) - they are shot on the spot.
Moreover, even mass executions are carried out directly in public, in front of the formation or without it.
This is well known to everyone, it is no secret, ”Putin said, speaking at a meeting of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights
At the same time, as the Russian president noted, there are no serious problems with desertion in the ranks of the RF Armed Forces.
According to Putin, the number of cases of abandoning positions in the Russian army is declining.
The head of state explains these incidents by the difficulty of adapting military personnel to the realities of hostilities.
As Mezhuev explained, most often the mobilized become deserters, many of whom find it difficult to accept the harsh conditions of the new army reality.
In relation to Ukraine, these are hundreds of thousands of people who are poorly trained and do not want to die.
“Deserts are people who do not want to fight.
In this context, it should be understood that the current Ukrainian army consists mainly of conscripts and mobilized.
Many of them, for a number of reasons, including personal ones, initially did not want to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and even more so to participate in hostilities,” Mezhuev said.
In an interview with RT, military expert Ivan Konovalov said that the Kyiv regime perceives the entire male population of Ukraine as a resource for confronting Russia.
According to the expert, the Ukrainian leadership could well legalize front-line shootings, but they are afraid of an extremely harsh reaction from society and the military.
“In my opinion, the special operation clearly proved that the Kyiv regime is ready to exterminate not only the civilian population, but also its own military personnel.
These are illegal executions at the front, and strikes against nationalists in the Yelenovka pre-trial detention center.
Almost any methods are used that, from the point of view of Zelensky and his henchmen, contribute to the fight against Russia, ”Konovalov stressed.
Demoralizing factors
Recall that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, as well as the authorities of the republics of Donbass that became part of Russia, have repeatedly reported cases of mass desertion of fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
As a rule, they leave positions without an order due to heavy losses from the use of artillery and precision-guided weapons by Russian troops.
In addition, data on casualties have a negative impact on the morale and motivation of Ukrainian servicemen.
According to Andriy Marochko, an increase in the number of disciplinary violations was recorded in the ranks of the Ukrainian army after the information about the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine named by the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
Recall that at the end of November, she spoke about the death of more than 100 thousand Ukrainian servicemen since the start of the special operation.
The European Commission then removed the segment with that number from von der Leyen's written and video statement.
Medical assistance to a soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
© General Staff ZSU
According to Marochko, because of the words of the head of the European Commission in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the number of sabotages, unauthorized abandonment of positions, squabbles with the command, hazing, facts of drug and alcohol use has increased.
According to Ivan Konovalov, the Ukrainian command seeks to stop talk about the high losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, realizing that they can have a strong demoralizing effect on the troops.
In addition, according to the interlocutor of RT, now the morale of the Ukrainian army is undermined by the successful attacks of the RF Armed Forces on energy facilities and military infrastructure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Another demoralizing factor is the lack of food, ammunition, winter uniforms and weapons near the contact line.
“The desertion that the Kyiv regime is trying to fight is expressed in the fact that an ordinary Ukrainian soldier can no longer be under the constant fire of the Russian Armed Forces.
In addition, Ukrainian troops on the front line often find themselves without supplies, and sometimes without command.
In such a situation, Ukrainian servicemen deliberately leave their positions, making a choice between captivity and desertion, ”concluded Konovalov.