Bharat Dogra – Counter Currents Nov 11, 2025

If there is mass desertion in army, if there is resort to force and cruelty to pick up thousands of men for conscription ignoring their and family members’ protests, if polls indicate that support for continuing war is very rapidly diminishing among the people of Ukraine, then shouldn’t very basic questions be raised regarding who are continuing the war to serve whose interests? Are policy makers, in Ukraine and in those countries which are supporting Ukraine’s current decision makers to continue the war, really guided by the welfare and well-being of the people of Ukraine, or are they being guided by their narrow selfish interests to be secured at the cost of the ordinary people of Ukraine?

In the context of the increasing importance of these questions, the data presented on desertions in Ukraine army in a very recently published article in Responsible Statecraft, a highly respected news and opinion website in the USA, is highly relevant. This data is contained in an article titled ‘Ukraine’s Busification—forced conscription is tip of the iceberg’. This article published on November 4, 2025 has been written by Ian Proud, a regular contributor who was a member of ‘His Britannic Majesty’s Diplomatic Service’ from 1999 to 2023. To quote, “In the first half of 2025, over 110,000 desertion cases were reported in Ukraine. In 2024, Ukraine prosecutors initiated over 89,000 proceedings related to desertion and unauthorized abandonment of units, a figure 3.5 times higher than in 2023. More than 20 per cent of Ukraine’s one million strong army have jumped the fence in the past four years, and the numbers are rising all the time.”

From this it appears that while desertions have been high since early times of the war, these have increased to extremely high levels in recent times, over one hundred thousand in the first six months of this year 2025. What has been the fate of all these soldiers? How many have never returned, or have lived in wilderness, or are still to be united with their families? How many have faced serious punishment? It is not known.

Further, the important article of Ian Proud tells us also about large scale forced conscriptions some of which have involved cruelty. Proud writes, “Look online, and you’ll find a trove of thousands of incidents, with most of them filmed this year alone. You can find videos of a recruit officer chasing a man and shooting at him, a man being choked to death on the street, with a recruiter’s knee on his neck. Many include family members or friends fighting desperately to prevent their loved one from being taken against his will.”

When soldiers have to be collected in such a way, then questions are bound to arise regarding to what extent common people are alienated from this war effort.

In fact the article being quoted also gives the result of Gallup Polls which show that within Ukraine the support for ‘Ukraine to keep fighting till it wins the war’ has dropped from 63% in 2023 to 24% in 2025. At the same time, the support for a negotiated end to war has increased from 27% in 2023 to 69% in 2025.

If you take away the core group of neo-Nazis who are opposed to Russia under all circumstances in a non-rational and fanatic kind of way, (as well as further support including mercenaries they may have gathered using the vast amounts of money including foreign money available to them in the prevailing system whose high levels of corruption have been acknowledged even by several supporters and donors) as well as others who benefit from their closeness to current ruling elites, then the support base for continuing the war would be even smaller than what has been indicated in the latest polls.

The support of such a small percent of people for continuing war also reminds us that earlier before 2014 all polls had indicated that less than 20% of the people of Ukraine had supported NATO membership. Yet all this while the USA and in later stages also a significant part of Europe had kept pushing for NATO membership for Ukraine, ultimately succeeding in dragging the country into tensions and ultimately a war while the interests of Ukraine would have been best served if this country had maintained its neutrality all along, benefiting from good relations with the west as well as with Russia.

In fact when NATO membership for Ukraine had been first pushed by the USA at a NATO summit in 2008 then some of the most senior leaders of Europe including the German Chancellor Angela Merkel had opposed this initially as they realized the possibility of wider very serious problems, but they were prevailed upon by the USA leadership to fall in line. Earlier some of the most senior USA diplomats and academics, including the top experts on Russia, had opposed the eastward expansion of NATO, in violation of earlier promises, as they too realized the dangers of this, but they and the objections raised by them were arrogantly ignored by the US leadership.

As a result of such wrong policy decisions, nearly a million persons have died or have been seriously injured or disabled in an entirely avoidable war, while about ten times this number have been displaced.

Some amends for seriously wrong policy choices can still be made if all sides cooperate to end the war as early as possible on a note of durable peace.

Are narrowly perceived selfish interests still motivating western countries, now perhaps Europe even more than USA, in continuing to create conditions in which the current Ukraine leadership is likely to continue prolonging the war by setting such terms  that early negotiated settlement becomes least likely? This is a big question that needs to be answered by Europe’s leaders. They represent a continent with the highest levels of education and scholarship. They should seek a role of enlightened leadership, of guiding the world on the path of justice and peace. If they adopt such narrow selfish attitudes as seen in Ukraine and for the greater part in Gaza, where will be their moral strength for a role of enlightened leadership? Please, now work genuinely and sincerely for peace. Please, no more of pretense and hypocrisy. The facts are obvious. This is not a war the people of Ukraine want to continue any further. Please accept this message and prepare for the kind of negotiated settlement that is achievable in the near future for achieving durable peace.

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