More than a thousand soldiers of the Russian 20th Motorized Rifle Division from the Volgograd Oblast, fighting in Ukraine, escaped from this unit – reveals the independent Russian portal “Vazhnye Istorii”. It publishes a letter from the commanders, which contains a list of the names of deserters, which – according to the portal – “shows the true scale of desertions from the Russian army during the war.”
“In the spring of 2024, the authorities of several regions in Russia received a letter from the command of the 20th Motorized Rifle Division asking for help in searching for soldiers who escaped from the Ukrainian front. The list we obtained included over a thousand names – contract soldiers, mobilized and conscripts” – reveals the portal “Vazhnye Istorii”.
An independent Russian portal adds that data on the number of deserters in the Russian army are not officially disclosed. We also cannot rely on the statistics of criminal cases initiated on the basis of articles on desertion, because not all military personnel go to court. “The list we obtained shows the true scale of this phenomenon during the war with Ukraine. More than a thousand soldiers escaped from just one division, and in total at least twenty such units take part in the war with Ukraine,” “Vazhnye Istorii” estimates.
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Russian soldier. Illustrative photo mil.ru
“One of the worst”
The editorial team of an independent Russian portal reported that they had contacted several military personnel who had left the ranks of the 20th division. They justified that “it has a reputation as one of the worst, and soldiers are treated very badly there.”
One of the portal's interlocutors, 28-year-old Mikhail, said that he was “disappointed with serving in this unit after only six months.” His requests for release were allegedly ignored by commanders.
In February 2022, the 20th Division took part in the invasion of the Kherson Oblast in Ukraine. The region borders on the annexed Crimea, where exercises of Russian soldiers took place just before the aggression. Their task was, among other things, “investigating the location and condition of roads and bridges” in the Kherson Oblast. Mikhail recalled that before the fighting began, he heard from the commanders that “a large number of Ukrainian troops and foreign mercenary units were concentrated in this area”, which turned out to be a lie.
Russian conscripts in annexed Crimea Reuters Archive
On the wanted list
Sergei, who served in the 20th division, told Vazhnye Istoria journalists that before the invasion, the command promised its soldiers “two weeks of combat operations.” When it turned out that the war would last longer, 60 soldiers from his 80-man company fled.
“Sergei's name is on the list which contains the names of 1,010 wanted soldiers: 858 contract soldiers, 150 mobilized soldiers and two conscripts. Among them are 26 junior officers, one major and two lieutenant colonels,” writes “Vazhnye Istorii”. He recalls that military escapes were reported already in the first weeks of fighting. In the 225th regiment, which is part of the division, over 150 soldiers “refused to perform combat tasks and left the area of combat operations” in just a month.
“Commander of the 20th division, Alexei Gorobets (died during fighting in Ukraine in July 2022) wrote to the general staff in Moscow in the first weeks of the invasion that his unit needed to be reinforced as soon as possible due to the unsatisfactory morale of the soldiers as well as staff shortages,” we read in the publication.
Sergei escaped from Russia abroad. Mikhail is waiting for asylum in one of the European countries (“Vazhnye Istorii” does not reveal their whereabouts).
Main photo source: mil.ru