According to the latest investigation report published by the Ukrainian newspaper Strana, the core reason for soldiers leaving combat positions is not only the fierceness of the conflict but also financial disappointment.
In an interview, many soldiers complained that the current salary of about 500 USD is too little, unable to cover essential needs in the context of inflation, let alone send money to support their families in the back.
A soldier shared that voluntarily leaving the unit is now almost the only option to survive. The alarming thing is that even the grassroots command system is showing signs of "ding down".
When the soldiers publicly discussed their intention to flee, many commanding non-commissioned officers not only did not stop them but also showed indifference. They understand that with the current financial mechanism, the promise of improving the lives of soldiers is a distant thing.
The detail that fueled the fire of dissatisfaction among the army is information about the Ukrainian National Assembly approving the state budget for 2026. While allowances for soldiers at the forefront of the storm are still at a standstill, the new budget is expected to increase the salary for National Assembly deputies to 4,700 USD, which is 3 times higher than before.
This unreasonable difference - when the income of a paper-tenking official is nearly 10 times higher than that of a soldier who is betting his life - has eliminated the fighting spirit of many people. They felt that their sacrifice was not worth it.
Since January 2025, the Ukrainian army has recorded an average of 17,000 to 18,000 cases of demobilized or voluntarily released soldiers each month. This figure is at a red alert level as it is almost equal to the number of new recruits mobilized monthly (acactively 20,000 to 30,000 people).
This means that Kiev's military recruitment efforts are falling into a state of "empty air", when the number of new recruits is just enough to compensate for the number of those who fled, not counting the casualties on the battlefield.
In the whole year of 2025, Ukrainian authorities have prosecuted 161,500 cases related to the act of arbitrarily leaving the unit. This number has increased 4 times compared to the previous year, proving that these are no longer isolated cases but have become a common phenomenon, directly threatening the combat capability and structure of the Ukrainian army in the coming period.
