A French-sponsored Ukrainian army brigade has been badly botched

The formation of Ukraine’s 155th army brigade was announced at the D-Day anniversary ceremony in Normandy last June, complete with photo-ops with the French president, Emmanuel Macron. Paid for, trained and equipped by France, it was a showcase of NATO support, the first of what Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, hoped would be 14 new brigades sponsored by Western allies. Its deployment six months later was a disaster.

Starting in November, articles by Yuriy Butusov, founder of the news website Censor.net, revealed gross mismanagement: 1,700 men, about a third of the brigade, had gone AWOL (some back to their old units), and 50 deserted in France. France had delivered the Caesar howitzers, armoured vehicles and anti-tank missiles it promised, but Ukraine failed to provide crucial drones and electronic-warfare capacity. On its return the brigade was splintered: units and kit were hived off to other brigades, trained specialists were reassigned to infantry platoons, and desertions spiked as inexperienced units were sent to forward positions and took heavy losses.

Mr Butusov notes that all seven new brigades Ukraine raised in 2024 suffered similar problems when first deployed. But the 155th’s desertions have spotlighted Ukraine’s struggling mobilisation process, its unresponsive high command and the increasing dismay of its allies, who underwrite the war effort but have no say in strategy. The 155th is said to have cost around €900m ($930m). “For better or worse, Ukraine makes all the decisions,” says Jeffrey Edmonds, a former Pentagon official now at the Centre for a New American Security, a think-tank in Washington.

“Nick” (his military call sign), a battalion commander in the 155th, said he trained three tranches of recruits last year, only to see them sent to other brigades. When the 155th went to France it instead brought raw recruits. Only a dozen of his unit’s soldiers had combat experience before going to France. The brigade’s return was jumbled; some officers stayed for additional training. Nick and his soldiers were immediately sent to areas of heavy fighting. At one point he personally led ten men to retake a position, to demonstrate tactics to soldiers with no experience.

Mr Zelensky is now said to be overseeing an investigation into “abuses of power”, to soothe French irritation. General Mykhailo Drapatyi, appointed commander of Ukraine’s ground forces in November, stressed that the French side “fully fulfilled its obligations to Ukraine”. He promised to bolster the brigade’s officer corps and encouraged soldiers to contact him directly.

But for Mr Butusov the problems show failures in Ukraine’s high command. A new mobilisation law enacted last spring has not stopped people being summarily drafted on the street; desertions rose last year. Some generals close their ears to bad news: an internal report rating the brigade “unsatisfactory” was revised to “satisfactory” before it was deployed. Others blame subordinates. After the scandal broke, the brigade’s well-regarded chief was fired.

Many argue the army should be reinforcing existing brigades rather than forming new ones. Commanders are loth to part with their best soldiers, so new brigades struggle to attract veterans. America has pledged to create two new brigades and the Germans one, but with both governments in transition timetables have grown vague. After meeting Mr Macron in December, Mr Zelensky announced France would create a second brigade; France says this is still “under discussion”. The scandal has since reportedly led Mr Zelensky to order a temporary halt to new brigades.

Nick talked to The Economist at midnight via a video call from his bunker three kilometres from the front line. A screen behind him showed night-vision surveillance of the battlefield and the 155th’s banner, with its scorpion emblem. The brigade is training on the job. There are still desertions, but over the past two weeks Nick has sensed the start of a “sense of brotherhood”. The day, he sighed, had been much like the last 40. He has not seen his wife for five months. “We are holding on.”