Romanticizing desertion as a «rational choice» and the delegitimation of military discipline
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What it claims
Unauthorized absence (UA) is portrayed as the only rational survival strategy, allegedly guaranteeing impunity due to the government's inability to track offenders. Manipulators use fabricated statistics of "800,000 deserters" and isolated management errors to convince soldiers that death at the front is inevitable while desertion is safe.
Target audience
Examples (paraphrased)
- The state values a soldier's life at 132 hryvnias, so UA is the logical choice for a rational person who wants to live with their family rather than die for politicians' interests.
- There are already over 800,000 deserters in Ukraine whom no one is looking for, and businesses eagerly hire them because the law enforcement system has completely collapsed.
Goal
To demoralize AFU personnel, stimulate mass desertion, and undermine trust in military command and the law enforcement system.
Techniques used
- Appeal to Fear / PrejudicePromoting the thesis of a choice between «guaranteed death» at the front and a «safe life» in the rear as a deserter.
- Loaded LanguageUsing epithets like «sadistic commanders», «careerists», and describing the war as a «performance» to devalue the military oath.
The real grievance it exploits
Genuine exhaustion of service members from prolonged combat, delays in rotations, and fear of death or the incompetence of specific commanders.
How to counter
- Technique exposure: Propaganda uses the «voting with feet» tactic to create a false impression of total loss of army control, ignoring the hundreds of thousands who continue to serve.
- Reframe: The state introduces mechanisms for voluntary return to units not out of «weakness», but to preserve human capital and offer a chance to correct a mistake without a criminal record.
Sources
Report as of 28 Jun 2026