Zaporizhia Prosecutor's Office for Supervision over the Observance of Laws in the Military Sphere of the Southern Region of Ukraine has launched a pre-trial investigation into the desertion of 41 Ukrainian servicemen.
“The investigation is underway on this case, and the information has
been included in the unified register of pre-trial investigations under
Part 3, Article 409 (refusing to fulfill military service duties in
combat conditions) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine,” the press service
of the Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern Region told
Interfax-Ukraine on July 29.
The prosecutor’s office noted that 41 servicemen were currently at
military unit A-1978 in Zaporizhia and that investigative measures were
being conducted with them.
Mykhailo Lohvynov, deputy military commissar in Zaporizhia region,
said that psychologists were currently working with these servicemen.
“They are finding out why it happened,” Lohvynov said.
Earlier, some media reported that more than 40 Ukrainian servicemen
engaged in the anti-terrorist operation in the east had left the ranks
of the Ukrainian army and had taken Russia’s side. The Ukrainian Defense
Ministry reported that an internal investigation was being carried out.
