About 14,900 criminal cases filed against deserters in Crimea in 2014-2015, - military prosecutor

14,894 criminal proceedings have been imitated by the prosecution authorities regarding almost 19,000 soldiers, who remained in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea during the Russian occupation of the peninsula in 2014-2015, and whose actions bore signs of draft evasion and desertion.

Main Military Prosecutor Anatolii Matios said today during a meeting of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Committee, Censor.NET correspondent reports.

Anatolii Matios noted that there were 20,315 soldiers in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as of Feb. 26-27, 2014, according to the official data. 6,010 soldiers arrived in mainland Ukraine between Feb. and May 2014.

"After these sad and tragic events, which led to the annexation of Crimea and immediate holding of fake referendum, the state authorities started taking steps to ensure that first of all those, who have returned, integrated in the Ukrainian territory, ensured their protection, quartered them in places of permanent or temporary deployment, as well as initiated the relevant investigations.

In this regard, in 2014-2015, the prosecution authorities have filed 14,894 proceedings against nearly 19,000 servicemen, who remained in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and whose actions bore signs of draft evasion and desertion," Anatolii Matios said.

According to him, 20 percent of cases have been referred to the court last year. He stressed that about 3,000 criminal proceedings have been processed by the current Military Prosecutor's Office staff of 120 investigators.