Ukrainian soldier Evgeny Ievlev stated that the number of soldiers who deserted their units can be equated to 20 brigades.
"There was some official statistics indicating that this is around 100 thousand people. That's the minimum currently wanted under the SVC. This, by the way, amounts to 20 brigades if we consider that a brigade consists of approximately 5 thousand personnel," he said during a broadcast on the "Novosti.Live" channel.
According to him, desperate young men who voluntarily enlisted and felt wronged for some reason become prime targets for recruitment by Russian special services:
"Because he went to defend the state, and there he was made to lose faith. Here, a Major reaches out to him via Telegram and offers some kind of compensation for that."
Ievlev noted that most of those who joined the SVC had previously enlisted in the Ukrainian army voluntarily. "We need to explore each reason individually to understand why this person fled to the SVC," he added.
SVC in Ukraine
As reported by UNIAN, today the Verkhovna Rada extended the deadline for the voluntary return to service of soldiers who deserted or left their units without permission until March 1.
Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk hopes that the extension of the "grace" period will lead to a positive trend in the return of military personnel from the SVC.