Authorities have promised not to prosecute deserters if they return to service

Kostiantin is 1 of about 21,000 Ukrainian soldiers considered deserters, but who, in order to avoid punishment, voluntarily returned to service. At the beginning of the year Ukraine registered about 123 1000 investigations into desertion or cases of soldiers leaving the units without permission. In the years 2023 and 2024, the number of soldiers moving distant from the service increased so much that investigators failed to keep up with the handling of cases and managed to complete the investigation only in about 7% of cases. This led to an agreement whereby the authorities promised not to prosecute deserters if the commanders could convince them to return to the service