The scandal around the 155th Brigade: further formation of new units is under threat
3 January 2025 10:13
Nadiya Palyvoda, journalist
Yuriy Butusov wrote a large-scale investigation about the 155th Anna Kyiv Brigade, which was training in France and whose catastrophic situation was described in a large-scale investigation.
Today, on the basis of this investigation, Zelensky is convening a meeting of the Commander-in-Chief. To investigate the circumstances of the disaster.
At best, some solutions will be found.
In the worst case, several culprits will be appointed – brigadiers and combatants who tried their best to somehow establish the functioning of the brigade and save people.
I don’t write about military issues because I’m not an expert in this.
But the situation with the Anna Kyivska brigade has been bugging me.
Because I work as a foreign affairs journalist, I have a lot of French friends on Twitter. And they are very, very much in favor of Ukraine. They follow our news and the front line – sometimes more than the Ukrainians themselves.
They were so happy to see the creation and training of this brigade in France. It all looked very cool.
The French, fighters and revolutionaries at heart, love everything military. Most of the French aid to Ukraine was not economic, but military.
Just the creation and equipping of the 155th Brigade alone cost 900 million euros – almost a billion. This is very expensive.
And the way our people blew it all up is simply mind-boggling.
I won’t tell you about it better than Butusov did in his investigation, but in short, what happened and who is to blame:
1. Instead of training new fighters for the existing brigades, which are severely short of people, Zelensky decided to make a beautiful political project of creating a new brigade together with France. However, it turned out that there were no resources, no normal experienced commanders, and no instructors for this.
2. Initially, the 155th Brigade was created in Ukraine in the spring of this year, with several thousand soldiers. However, in the summer, in July and August, the high command took away minimally trained soldiers from the brigade to fill the gaps caused by the lack of people in other brigades.
Almost all of them, 2,500 fighters, were taken away, constantly moving and tearing apart units and commanders. Chaos and disorientation reigned. People fled to AWOL (AWOL, in other words, deserters) in their hundreds and thousands.
3. Instead of those who were taken away, they recruited new ones who did not know how to do anything. As a result, in October, it was not an experienced brigade that went to France for training, but newly recruited people who had been in uniform for only a couple of days.
4. 50 people escaped right in France, which completely disgraced Ukraine, and asked the French authorities for political asylum.
5. Despite all this, France fulfilled its obligations in full, trained all 2,300 soldiers who arrived and equipped the brigade with expensive new equipment, from Caesars to Leopards.
6. At the same time, in Ukraine, the Zakhid organization trained those soldiers from the 155th Brigade who did not go to France, which is several thousand more. But since the entire command of the brigade was in France, and there were almost no instructors in the OK “West”, the training was poor.
7. After returning from France, the brigade, which had not had time to really adapt, was sent to the front to Pokrovsk. There it turned out that they had no drones. Drones were supposed to be provided by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. But it did not. It also did not provide electronic warfare devices. It’s almost impossible to fight without drones and electronic warfare devices, so in the first battles, many of these new Caesars and Leopards were burned by Russian drones, and the military didn’t even have electronic warfare devices to defend themselves against them.
8. Volunteers raised funds for drones and electronic warfare devices. Only 10 days after the brigade entered the battle, the Ministry of Defense provided 17 million hryvnias for the purchase of drones. But it turned out that there were no trained operators to fly these drones.
9. Many people died and continue to die because of disorientation. More and more NWC. 1700 people left the brigade before the first battles began.
10. There was already a commission that found the brigadier, Dmytro Ryumshyn, guilty for “failing to establish communication between the command and the fighters” – although Butusov calls him a good, experienced commander who tried to bring some order to the chaos. Ryumshyn was removed from command, as were other commanders. A new command was put in place, which does not understand what is happening there. The chaos only got worse.
11. The only thing we can hope for is publicity. It is the only thing that works in this country. And the fact that Zelenskyy convened the Security Council right after the investigation is good. But whether it will help will depend on the Commander-in-Chief.
Our French friends cannot believe their eyes. They say: this is definitely a fake, it can’t be. And that journalist should be put in jail, he was sent by Russia, if he says such bad things about Ukraine.
I’m ashamed of France, because they really wanted to help Ukraine.
After the creation of Anna of Kyiv, there were supposed to be further brigades. Now it is unlikely that there will be any.
Thank you, Yuriy Butusov, for the investigation. It’s nasty and dirty, but someone has to move this swamp.
Source: Facebook
