MOSCOW, 29 Jun. Western Ukrainians refuse to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine and are deserting en masse in the Zaporozhye direction, Colonel Douglas McGregor, ex-adviser to the head of the Pentagon, said on the PBD Podcast YouTube channel. — Note ed.) Zelensky there are recruiting groups that forcibly take men into the Armed Forces of Ukraine, because they need manpower. Zelensky is now doing this in the western corners of the country — in Galicia and Transcarpathia. Ukrainians flee from these places abroad. There are reports coming from there that people are throwing stones at recruiters or shooting at them because they don’t want to go to war,” the officer said.
According to McGregor, in the southern direction of the front, in the Zaporozhye region, mobilized soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are withdrawing from positions and deserting in whole platoons. Some of them cross the front line and surrender, the colonel specified.
The former adviser to the head of the Pentagon also noted that the Russians are very reasonable in treating Ukrainian prisoners of war well.