A report collected from a British source said that military service evasion in Ukraine has been "transforming into a crisis" in the context of Russia making progress in the Donetsk region.
Earlier this week, DeepState - a monitoring group affiliated with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense - even said that the situation would become more "chaotic" as the Russian army continued to "cluster forces to go further".
The report stated that the reason why many Ukrainians are fleeing military service is because they are afraid of facing foreign violence.
Notably, this information was given in the context of Kiev's general mobilization order, which requires all healthy men aged 25 to 60 to serve in the armed forces, which is considered uncompromising to compensate for the losses on the battlefield.
Last week, Ukrainian lawmaker Anna Skorokhod said that the number of desertions is increasing sharply, with nearly 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers voluntarily leaving their units, and many - including volunteers - have no intention of returning.
Meanwhile, military analyst Konrad Muzy said that Ukraine is "clearly losing" in the conflict, partly due to a serious shortage of infantry and the declining performance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Previously, on July 29, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky passed a law encouraging 60-year-old men to join the army, in the context of a volunteer military recruitment campaign targeting men aged 18 to 24 that has not had positive results.
Accordingly, men who are eligible for retirement will be allowed to register to participate in non-combat roles if they are assessed by military doctors as healthy and approved by the unit commander. The contract will last for 1 year and can be extended when there is further approval.
The bill was originally introduced by a group of lawmakers in April and was approved by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) during its second review in early July.
