Russia Deploys Helicopters to Capture Their Own Fleeing Deserters: Ukraine

Russia has deployed helicopters and weapons in the occupied Ukrainian Kherson region in an effort to round up soldiers who had deserted their positions, according to Ukraine.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine wrote in a Facebook update Friday afternoon that "significant losses and the unwillingness to fight" were contributing to a deterioration in the "moral and psychological condition" of occupying Russian troops. The number of deserters is also increasing, it said.

"In the temporarily occupied territory of Kherson region, in the area of Babenkivka Second settlement, the enemy had to deploy helicopters and weapons to search for fugitives and return them to combat positions," the post read. "In addition, through Kalanchak, in the direction of temporarily occupied Crimea, intensive movement of unarmed Russian soldiers was noted." Kalanchak is also located in the Kherson region, where a Ukrainian counteroffensive is currently taking place.

Newsweek was not able to verify the report and reached out to Russia's defense ministry for confirmation and comment.

The Ukrainian report, if confirmed, provides new insight on the state of the soldiers fighting for Russia in a war that is approaching its seven-month anniversary. There have been several indications that the spirit among these troops has been suffering, including a Sunday U.K. intelligence update that said Russian troops were experiencing "morale and discipline issues" in Ukraine.

The U.K. defense ministry wrote that problems like combat fatigue, high casualties and payment problems were among the soldiers' main grievances.

Ukrainian estimates on Russia's death toll in Ukraine surpassed 50,000 earlier this week, though Moscow last provided its own estimate on March 25, when a Russian military chief told the state-run Tass news agency that 1,351 soldiers had been killed and 3,825 had been wounded.

Late last month, an unidentified "senior military official" speaking at a Pentagon briefing described Russian troop morale as "miserable."

The Ukrainian military intelligence service reported on Thursday that a group of Russian troops in a Russian-backed region of Moldova is experiencing "mass desertion" during a push to recruit contract workers in the area.

The main intelligence directorate of Ukraine's defense ministry wrote in the report that Transnistria residents were refusing to sign contracts with the Russian army despite promises of "high cash payments, social packages, and likely housing." The directorate also said that desertion cases had been on the rise among what it described as the "operational group of Russian troops in Transnistria."

"And due to the limited number of military contingents, the Russians cannot attract the necessary resources to search for and return the missing," it added.

Newsweek was not able to independently verify this report either.