Kiev, 5 August 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Some 29,000 deserters have rejoined Ukraine's armed forces thanks to a new law that guarantees them amnesty when returning voluntarily, authorities said on Tuesday.

"Thanks to the law, between November 29, 2024 and August 2025, over 29,000 fighters who left their unit on their own accord returned to service," the director of the State Investigation Bureau, Oleksiy Sukhachov, told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

The bill, which grants amnesty to first-time deserters upon return, was drafted in cooperation with the military, according to Sukhachov.

According to official figures, over 122,000 new cases of desertion were registered in the same period, however.

Ukraine has seen a wave of desertions amid the ongoing Russian invasion.

Prosecutors have recorded some 224,000 cases since the beginning of the war with Russia in February 2022, though the real number is likely to be much higher.

Only a small percentage of cases is being pursued.

According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the military is recruiting up to 30,000 new soldiers every month, equalling estimates of monthly troop losses due to death, injury, capture and desertion.

Forced recruitment carried out in the open street is often met with violent resistance, with passers-by expressing solidarity with the men.

On Sunday, villagers in the southern region of Mykolaiv beat up military officials using truncheons and steel pipes, according to police.

On Friday, a crowd of people tried to free dozens of mobilized men from a football stadium in the western city of Vinnytsia and were only prevented from doing so by a large police deployment.