SBI detains company commander of 155th Brigade who incited soldiers to leave the unit without permission
9 January 2025 08:21
SBI officers, in cooperation with the SBU, detained and notified the commander of one of the companies of the 155th separate mechanized brigade of suspicion, who not only left the place of service without permission but also incited his subordinates to do so. This was reported by the State Bureau of Investigation, according to
As noted in the SBI report, it was found that the senior lieutenant failed to comply with an order to transfer the company he led to the operational subordination of another unit at the end of last year. Instead, he ordered his soldiers to flee unarmed and left the place of service without permission.
The company commander was reportedly detained the day before in Rivne region. He was taken to Kyiv, where he was notified of suspicion of unauthorized abandonment of the place of service and refusal to obey an order (part 4 of Article 402, part 5 of Article 407 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The sanction of the articles provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
The court imposed on the suspect a pre-trial restraint in the form of detention with an alternative to bail.
How widespread was the brigade’s SZHF?
In his investigation on the situation in the 115th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, journalist Yuriy Butusov tracked the cases of unauthorized absence from the unit for each month. For example, when the 155th Brigade left for training in France in October, there were already 935 SFs in the brigade! During the training phase, more than 50 soldiers deserted the new brigade in France. And in the first week of December, even before the brigade entered the battle, 198 more AWOLs occurred. According to Yuriy Butusov, before the brigade fired its first shot, 1700 soldiers had left without permission.
Why there were so many cases of AWOL
In his Facebook post, the commander of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Mykhailo Drapaty, called the situation with the unauthorized abandonment of the unit difficult.
“The main challenge faced by the brigade is the low efficiency and motivation of mid-level commanders who directly manage people. This, as well as the involvement of units in combat operations, determines the number of SPCs in the 155th Brigade. I should note that I have not observed massive cases of soldiers leaving their combat positions. Instead, I observe a certain substitution of concepts, when the number of the NWC soldiers is equal to the number of desertions,” emphasized Mykhailo Drapaty.
According to the commander, there is no simple recipe – we need to work on solving all the problematic issues that cause AWOL, not only in the Land Forces, but in the Armed Forces as a whole.
Mykhailo Drapaty believes that the number of SFOs in the brigade will decrease in proportion to the decisions that will affect the combat capability and motivation of the personnel, and this is a joint task of the authorities and the Defense Forces.
According to the Commander of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, all responsible persons have received instructions.
