Russian leadership tries to conceal statistics on desertions

This was reported by Ukraine's Centre of National Resistance.

According to sources, a record number of Russian soldiers have been put on trial in the Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod regions of the Russian Federation. More than 5,000 court cases in 2023 concerned the unauthorized abandonment of military units after the start of mobilization in September 2022.

"Many sentences concerned desertion, as well as failure to comply with orders from higher command. The situation is being concealed at all levels of government in the Russian Federation, as such cases are widespread and relate to the occupation forces in the temporarily occupied territories of eastern and southern Ukraine," the statement said.

• In November 2023, the Russian forces intensified searches and interrogations of civilians in the temporarily occupied Melitopol and the surrounding area to find deserters.