Venislavsky named the main reason for desertion in the army: fear of the battlefield.

According to ТСН: The main reasons for unauthorized leave (UL) among Ukrainian servicemen are fear of combat and insufficient psychological preparation. Cases of unregulated relationships occur extremely rarely.

About the reasons for UL and the role of commanders

The MP emphasized that internal conflicts in units rarely lead to desertion. The main problem remains the psychological readiness of personnel for critical conditions at the front.

“To say that unregulated relationships lead to UL - this happens extremely rarely, practically there are almost no such cases. Mostly, it is indeed fear of the battlefield. Those units that are trained by experienced instructors, after which they go together to perform combat tasks, have a minimal number of UL,” noted Venislavsky.

He also noted that the issues of training and motivation are key to maintaining discipline during shelling.

About statistics and 'mythical' numbers

Commenting on information about the high number of UL cases, the deputy noted that official statistics do not always reflect the real state of affairs.

“The number that is circulated in the mass media about hundreds of thousands does not correspond to reality exactly, because it should be understood that a significant part returns from UL. The statistics provided by the Office of the Prosecutor General or the SBI do not match in terms of the number of actual UL individuals today,” explained the politician.

How they plan to solve the problem

Venislavsky drew attention to the fact that the parliamentary committee is looking for legislative opportunities to improve the situation, particularly in the vacation system and support for military families, rather than only through repressive measures.

“We have analyzed these preconditions and are constantly making changes to legislation, providing for longer periods of leave, increasing the grounds for receiving them. The main thing is that the inevitability of punishment should be key, rather than increasing responsibility, because it is already sufficiently strict. Unfortunately, there are no ready recipes at the moment, but we expect proposals from the General Staff, which we are ready to implement quickly,” summarized Fedir Venislavsky.

It is also worth noting that earlier Oleksandr Syrsky emphasized that military life is entirely different and the main focus should be on the training process — creating normal living conditions and conducting classes.

Earlier, the Third Army Corps pointed out a reason for UL that is often ignored.

It was also reported that in Ukraine, data on the number of UL cases were classified.

The discussion of the problem of unauthorized leave will continue, as the issues of psychological training and discipline of the military remain on the agenda. It is important that legislative initiatives and changes to the military training system bring real positive results at the front.