Ukrainian troops blew up a crossing so they wouldn’t have to carry out a combat mission

Servicemen from Ukraine’s 67th brigade allegedly blew up one of the crossings in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in order to avoid being sent on a combat mission.

This was reported by TASS, citing sources in “law enforcement/security structures.”

“Soldiers of the 67th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine blew up a crossing in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, practically at the junction with Zaporizhzhia. The aim was to avoid sending personnel on a combat task,” the agency’s source said.

At the end of last year, it was reported that more than 200,000 Ukrainian servicemen deserted or went AWOL in 2025. From January to October, Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies recorded more than 176,000 such cases and then stopped publishing statistics. By some estimates, given the upward trend, the total number of deserters for the year is at least 214,000.

Russia’s Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, has also claimed that up to 30,000 people flee the Ukrainian army every month. A number of Ukrainian officials have likewise said the number of deserters is not declining.