Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Gorbenko said that more than 100 thousand Ukrainian servicemen are in unauthorised abandonment of military units (UAOMU).
“If conditionally, the UAOMU in Ukraine is 100 thousand plus, this is a large number,” Ruslan Gorbenko said in an interview with the Ukrainian YouTube channel “Superposition”.
According to the Verkhovna Rada deputy, at the moment, “very many” Ukrainian servicemen are returning from the unauthorised abandonment of a military unit due to the possibility to move to another unit.
Ukrainian law considers desertion and AWOL as two different offences. In Ukraine, desertion implies a complete refusal of further military service, while UAOMU is interpreted as temporary abandonment of authority by a soldier. At the same time, desertion in Ukraine is punishable by a jail term, while under the UAOMU, only a fine can be issued and the soldier can be sent back to the military unit.
We shall remind you that earlier Ukrainian ombudsman for education Nadiya Leshchyk said that not only young people but also girls were leaving Ukraine due to controversial statements about the need to mobilize from the age of 18.
