In 2024, the number of cases against Russian soldiers who refused to serve doubled

Since the start of the full-scale invasion in Ukraine, military courts received almost 16,000 criminal cases. The most common offence remains going AWOL: 14,182 cases made it to courts, with 12,460 sentences already handed down. This article of the Russian Criminal Code implies punishment of up to 10 years in prison, but many soldiers receive suspended sentences—allowing them to be sent back to the front lines.

Under the “lighter” criminal charge on disobeying orders, courts received 1,037 cases, with 975 sentences carried out. The penalty here is two to three years in prison. The disobeying orders charge is often used in remote regions of Russia (Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Primorsky and Zabaikalsky krais in the East, as well as Kaliningrad region in the West). Rare published sentences usually state that the defendants simply refused to go to the front across the whole country.

Another 683 cases (563 sentences) were submitted to courts under over desertion, with punishment of up to 15 years in prison.

In July 2024, military investigators set a record by transferring almost 1,100 new cases (1,076) to courts in a single month. After that, there was a clear gap in August and September, for reasons unknown. October again saw over a thousand cases in courts, and the data for November is incomplete: records may appear on court websites with a delay.

Courts also reached their maximum speed in July: 900 decisions per month, amounting to 39–41 verdicts per working day. By the end of 2024, military courts had sentenced 13,897 soldiers in cases for “crimes against military service.” In another 175 cases, the courts made a different decision: transferring the case to the appropriate jurisdiction, terminating it, or returning it to the prosecutor, etc.