How many Russian soldiers Ukrainian intelligence claims have defected in no year. “Some leave their positions directly from the battlefield”

Ukraine's military intelligence service (HUR) said on Saturday that some of the deserting Russian servicemen “leave their positions directly from the battlefield, others disappear from permanent deployment points, and some military personnel simply do not return from medical treatment or vacations,” reports TVP World.

In a statement published on its official Telegram channel on Saturday, the HUR said that between November 2024 and July 2025, “more than 25,000 soldiers and officers from the Central Military District — one of five operating within the army's occupation structure — independently left their units.”

Ukrainian intelligence claims that the phenomenon has affected various military fronts and bases. HUR also documented cases of desertion “with weapons and even combat equipment – more than 30 such incidents in 2024-2025 alone.”

“Unbearable working conditions”

Ukraine's military intelligence service blamed the mass desertions on what it described as “unbearable working conditions”, citing “widespread harassment, a catastrophic lack of supplies and mass deployments in so-called “meat raids”.

The last phrase used by HUR refers to the high-casualty frontal attacks that Russian commanders order.

HUR also claims that internal Russian military documents list “disobeying orders” among the official causes of servicemen's deaths.

“Over the past year, more than 30 such cases have been documented,” the Ukrainian institution said, “which actually indicates a systematic practice of executing Russian soldiers who refuse to go to the slaughter for reasons related to the Kremlin's ambitions.”

HUR launched an appeal to Russian troops, saying: “Every Russian serviceman who does not want to die for the Putin regime has a chance to save his life. To do this, it is necessary to write to the bot of the “I want to live” project on Telegram.”