Over 25,000 Russian troops desert from Central Military District in nine months – intelligence
According to Ukrinform, this was reported on Telegram by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
“From November 2024 to July 2025, over 25,000 soldiers and officers from the Central Military District alone — one of the five operational districts within the structure of the occupying army — deserted their units. The escapes vary: some abandon their positions directly on the battlefield, others disappear from their permanent deployment locations, while some simply fail to return from treatment or leave,” the report states.
In 2024–2025, intelligence recorded more than 30 cases of desertion involving Russian servicemen who fled together with weapons and even combat vehicles.
The main reasons for the desertions are described as intolerable service conditions: widespread hazing and abuse by senior ranks, a catastrophic lack of supplies, and mass deployments to so-called “meat assaults.”
MID also notes that internal reports of the occupying forces list a separate cause of death category — “non-execution of orders” (неисполнение приказа). Ukrainian intelligence interprets this as evidence of a systematic practice of executions of Russian servicemen who refuse to die for the Kremlin’s ambitions.
As reported earlier, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine intercepted a conversation in which a Russian commander threatened to execute his subordinates after they refused to cross a river, explaining that they simply did not know how to swim.
Photo: ArmyInform
