‘Desertion rises’ in Ukraine army as 200 killed each day in Donbas

CASES of desertion are growing every week in the Ukrainian army, according to a leaked intelligence report, as up to 200 of its outgunned soldiers are killed every day in the eastern Donbas region.

Kyiv’s forces are outnumbered 20 to one in artillery and 40 to one in ammunition by the Kremlin’s forces in the area, the Ukrainian report reveals.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to the Ukrainian president, said yesterday that the battle over the war-torn country’s industrial heartlands was so intense that the army was suffering up to 200 military casualties per day.

The previous upper limit was given as 100 soldiers.

Russia has managed to gain the upper hand in the Donbas because of its superior long-range weaponry.

Mr Podolyak said Ukraine’s armed forces needed hundreds of the most powerful artillery systems to compete with Moscow’s forces, not the handful being sent by Western governments.

The intelligence dossier, drawn up by Ukrainian and Western officials, warns of the growing risk of demoralised Ukrainian soldiers going Awol.

The situation in the Donbas is having a “seriously demoralising effect on

Ukrainian forces as well as a very real material effect; cases of desertion are growing every week”, according to the report seen by The Independent.

The suggestion was confirmed by a Western official, who also said Russian troops were abandoning their units as the war in Ukraine rumbled on.

The source added: “They will, of course, be facing more issues, but the Ukrainians are fighting in their homeland and are in largely dug-in positions, so they have the advantage over Russia in that regard.”

But Col Oleksandr Motuzianyk, of Ukraine’s ministry of defence, said that the reports were not true and likened them to “Russian propaganda”.

“Russian troops really outnumber our artillery forces, so we need weapons from Western partners,” he added. “But Ukrainian troops, despite this [Russian] advantage, do not retreat.”

The Institute for the Study of War, a Us-based think tank, said Russian forces were trying to merge their operations in Izyum and Popasna. Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Moscow was attempting “to regain momentum in this area in order to put further pressure on Severodonetsk, and to give it the option of advancing deeper into the Donetsk Oblast”.

If the Kremlin’s offensive drive is successful, it would leave Ukrainian troops almost entirely encircled by Russia’s forces in Severodonetsk.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said the fate of the Donbas lay in the fierce fight for the embattled city.

In his address late on Wednesday, Mr Zelensky said: “[On] the 105th day of the full-scale war, Severodonetsk remains the epicentre of the confrontation in Donbas. We are defending our positions and inflicting significant losses on the enemy. This is a very fierce battle, very difficult.

“Probably one of the hardest for this war, to everyone who defends in this direction. In many respects, the fate of Donbas is being decided there.”

The battle for the Severodonetsk is being waged “house to house”, Petro Kuzyk, commander of the Svoboda National Guard battalion, said.

“We fight for every house and every street,” he said, adding the fighting had gone from “blind defence to small counter-offensives in some areas”.

‘Russian troops really outnumber our artillery forces, so we need weapons from Western partners’