This was announced by Lieutenant Colonel of the People's Militia of the LPR, retired Andrey Marochko.
According to him, Russian intelligence recorded the unauthorized abandonment of positions by Ukrainian troops in the Makeevka area.
“When fleeing, Ukrainian militants tried to cross the Zherebets River, but were discovered by barrage detachments, fire was opened on them,” RIA Novosti quotes him.
He noted that as a result, three soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were killed, the remaining military "were forced to return to their previously occupied positions."
A lieutenant colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said earlier that Ukrainian servicemen often leave military units without permission.
On December 19, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign a law toughening punishment for military deserters.
According to the agency Agerpres, a detachment of rescuers and border guards in Romania completed the search for six deserters from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who illegally crossed the border, in the region of the Maramures Mountains at an altitude of 1.8 thousand meters.