A soldier chose a radical way to publicize troop fatigue: He deserted

KYIV, Ukraine – For months, Serhii Hnezdilov, a Ukrainian soldier, pushed for troops exhausted by years of war with Russia to be replaced with fresh conscripts. He expressed his concerns in interviews, on social networks and in a podcast, drawing on his five years of fighting in an infantry brigade.

But Hnezdilov, 24, said his calls went unanswered. So last month, he took a radical step that he hoped would focus attention on his cause: He deserted and then publicly announced it on social media and in news outlets.

“I was left with no other option but to leave, slam the door very loudly and force people to finally start talking about this problem,” Hnezdilov said in a video interview with the New York Times on Oct. 1 from a secret location where he was hiding from Ukrainian authorities.

And talk people did. Soldiers, politicians and other public figures voiced their opinions in lengthy social media posts. Some condemned his actions as treason and called for punishment. Others acknowledged his concerns about the need to rotate troops but argued that desertion was not the solution. Some people also supported him, viewing his act as a much-needed wake-up call.

“It is definitely a big debate,” said Tymofii Brik, a sociologist and rector of the Kyiv School of Economics, adding that Hnezdilov had brought a sensitive topic, mostly discussed in private circles, into the public sphere. “People were triggered.”

After two weeks of evading authorities, Hnezdilov was detained Oct. 9 by Ukrainian police “on suspicion of voluntarily leaving a military unit with the intent to evade military service under martial law,” a crime that carries a potential sentence of up to 12 years in prison. A court has ordered his preventive detention for 60 days, pending trial.

Hnezdilov’s move struck at the heart of a problem facing the Ukrainian army: It cannot afford to discharge worn-out soldiers unless it recruits enough replacements, especially as Ukrainian troops are outnumbered by Russians on the battlefield.

Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has been steadily losing ground in the eastern Donbas region, the war’s main theater, and officials expect the fighting to continue for many more months.

But in return, the army’s efforts to conscript more people have been hampered by the lack of a clear end date for their military service. Many Ukrainians fear that indefinite service amounts to a one-way ticket to the front and have been reluctant to join the military as a result.

Soldiers complain of exhaustion and, according to official statistics, tens of thousands have deserted. Families of service members hold weekly protests calling for discharges after a certain amount of service, a rare show of public criticism in wartime. And many men have gone into hiding to escape conscription officers who roam Ukrainian cities.

“I decided to speak out loudly about this problem because it has reached a massive scale,” Hnezdilov said in the interview.

Yehor Chernev, deputy chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s defense and intelligence committee, said in a text message that “it is not a proper time to demand demobilization when we are forced to retreat in the Donbas.”

Other Ukrainian army officers warned that such a move could demotivate soldiers at the front trying to hold back Russian forces.

Hnezdilov joined the army as a volunteer in 2019, when Ukraine was fighting Russian-backed forces in the Donbas. His three-year contract was due to end in March 2022, but the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion shortly before that, and Hnezdilov was barred from leaving the army under martial law.

He first fought in Pisky, a small eastern frontline village that Russia captured in late 2022, and then in other hot spots like Bakhmut, holding various positions in Ukraine’s 56th Motorized Infantry Brigade, including machine-gunner and drone reconnaissance commander.

“Now, I am very tired,” Hnezdilov said, adding that he wanted to return to civilian life.

Soldiers, he said, cannot fight indefinitely and must know when they “will be able to rest,” or they begin “to experience depression, psychological and health problems.”

This year, Ukraine’s parliament considered including a provision for discharge after three years of service in a new conscription bill. But the army demanded that lawmakers remove the provision, arguing that the situation at the front was too unstable to allow soldiers to leave.

That outraged many service members and their families, who said that discharges would be possible if the military did a better job at drafting people to replace them.

The Ukrainian army’s conscription process has long been hampered by various issues. Corruption at enlistment centers has allowed many to evade mobilization. Some men resist conscription, citing inadequate training that leaves them ill-prepared for combat. Authorities have also tried to preserve the workforce to keep the economy running, allowing some companies to exempt some employees from mobilization.

Most recently, however, Ukraine has stepped up mobilization, drafting up to 30,000 people a month this summer, about two to three times more than during the last winter.

Hnezdilov said he and many fellow soldiers saw it as deeply unfair that many people can avoid conscription, while those at the front cannot leave the army after years of fighting.

“This is what I call the curse of the uniform. Once you put it on, you can’t take it off,” he said. “That’s why most people avoid it.”

Hnezdilov faced immediate backlash from the military when he deserted. His former brigade launched an investigation, and several prominent Ukrainian soldiers fiercely criticized his move.

Masi Nayyem, a famous veteran who lost an eye in 2022, wrote on social media that while he agreed with the need to address discharge issues, Hnezdilov’s decision was “immoral with respect to those who died and were wounded: They did not sacrifice their lives and health simply to simply surrender the front afterward.”

But Hnezdilov and his supporters argue that the front is starting to crack as more and more soldiers desert, discouraged by the prospect of endless fighting. Data from the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office shows that 51,000 soldiers have left their units without leave from January to September this year – more than double the total number in 2023.

The scale of desertion has become so significant that parliament passed a law this summer exempting service members from liability if they desert for the first time and voluntarily return to service. Lawmakers are now working to amend the law to remove any criminal proceedings altogether, making it easier for first-time deserters to return.

“Are they destroying the Ukrainian army? Partly yes. But why? What is the reason?” Hnezdilov asked about the deserters. “Maybe we should focus less on the act of going AWOL and more on what leads to it.”

He and other soldiers have warned that without a proactive policy, setting out clear terms of service and improving mobilization efforts, the number of deserters will only increase, especially as the war reaches the three-year mark in February.

“The dominoes could fall very soon,” said Artem Chekh, a Ukrainian writer and soldier. “Because many people have set themselves specific terms of service: three years.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.