Now those returning from AWOL can only be sent to assault units

Ukrainian soldiers who have left their units without authorization are always sent to assault units if they return to service.

This is reported by Ukrainian media with reference to a notice that brigades have begun receiving.

The document states that the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has changed the mechanism for returning deserters to the army.

“Under the new conditions, recommendation letters and written approvals from unit commanders are to be ignored, and personnel who return after SOCh (unauthorized abandonment of unit) are to be sent to designated priority units: assault regiments and the Air Assault Forces. This information must be communicated to all servicemen not as a horror story, but as an explanation, so that most servicemen understand that the scheme of transferring, after SOCh, to a unit of their own choosing no longer works,” the notice says.

In the spring, MP Hanna Skorokhod also claimed that after going AWOL one can return only “to be slaughtered” in assault brigades, although the law on returning after unauthorized abandonment does not say that you can come back only to specific brigades.

Also in the spring, media-facing soldier Yurii Fedorenko stated that those who leave their units without permission are predominantly drug addicts and alcoholics.