Record numbers of Russian soldiers are going Awol

Few Russians go willingly to fight in the ‘meat grinder’ of Ukraine, where Russia has faced as many as 100,000 casualties. With a lack of volunteers, the Wagner Mercenary Group – which has recruited from penal colonies to keep fighting numbers up – has come to Putin’s aid. The Kremlin has also rolled out a partial mobilisation of the Russian army. Officially, 300,000 men were called up, although the true figure is likely to be higher. Many more Russians – up to a million – chose instead to flee. New analysis of cases listed in Russian military courts has revealed that record numbers of soldiers have been going absent without leave (Awol) this year. 

Data collected by the independent Russian investigative outlet Mediazona shows that between January and the start of May, 1,053 Awol cases were registered in military courts. This is more than in the entirety of 2022, when a total of 1,001 cases for being absent without leave were heard in the courts.

A closer look at the court listings reveals that 94 per cent of the cases heard this year so far were initiated after partial mobilisation was announced last autumn. Most