Spanish-speaking mercenaries desert Ukrainian Armed Forces positions in Kharkiv region

A group of Spanish-speaking mercenaries has abandoned positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Petro-Ivanivka in Kharkiv region.

This was reported by RIA Novosti, citing a source in the security services.

According to the agency’s source, the mercenaries “refused to carry out the assigned task and withdrew deeper into Ukrainian territory.”

Against the backdrop of this incident, commander of Ukraine’s National Guard Oleksandr Pivnenko on June 17 spoke about the scale of desertion in the Ukrainian Armed Forces as a whole. According to him, the highest percentage of cases of unauthorized abandonment of military units is recorded at temporary deployment points and in frontline areas. Most often, soldiers flee when they are 50–100 km from the front line.

Pivnenko also said that 4% of military personnel desert from training centers, and that over the entire period several thousand soldiers have left the army without authorization. Cases of desertion are least frequently recorded at medical facilities, the commander added.

Previously, Pivnenko had stated that mobilization had “gone in the wrong direction”: only 20–30% of soldiers can be recruited on a voluntary basis. Fleeing from the front has meanwhile become one of the most widespread offenses in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.