Flagship Ukrainian brigade trained in France goes AWOL

At least 50 members of the new 155th mechanised brigade, one of the few to operate the Leopard 2 battle tank, disappeared while elements of the unit were being drilled in France.

By the time it entered battle for the first time, at least 1,700 of its troops went absent without leave at numerous points. Some 500 soldiers were still missing, it was reported as recently as November.

The exodus came before the brigade was deployed to Pokrovsk, the key logistics hub anchoring Ukraine’s defence against Russian advances in the eastern Donetsk region.

Entering the battle in recent days, it suffered heavy losses, reportedly including some of its tanks and armoured vehicles.

It prompted the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigations to investigate the seemingly shambolic formation of the 155th.

The brigade, also known as Anne of Kyiv, was meant to have more than 5,800 troops and be equipped with some of the best equipment available, including Leopard tanks and French Caesar 155mm howitzers.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, and Emmanuel Macron, his French counterpart, announced the $900 billion (£747 billion) project to much fanfare at an event to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landing in June last year.

The brigade had spent nine months training in western Ukraine, Poland and France as part of an effort by Mr Zelensky to establish 14 new brigades equipped and prepared by the West.

Yuriy Butusov, a Ukrainian war correspondent, wrote: “This is indeed a crime, but the crime of not soldiers and officers – but the crime of the leaders of the supreme commander-in-chief, the Ministry of Defence and the general staff, who continue to waste their lives and public funds on new projects, instead of strengthening experienced and combat-capable brigades.”

Analysts observing the conflict have questioned Kyiv’s strategy of using new recruits and equipment donations to build novice brigades rather than replenish the country’s existing, battle-stricken forces.

In a report on the formation of the 155th, Mr Butusov observed that it had been riddled with problems from the offset.

Recruitment for the brigade began in June last year but was hampered by some 2,500 recruits being plucked to replenish other units before training could begin.

The 1,924 volunteers that remained were sent to France, but it emerged that only 51 of them had military experience of more than a year.

The majority (1,414) had only enrolled in the Ukrainian military in the two months before they were sent for their overseas training.

As the brigade trained in France, it continued to recruit, with more than 700 of those troops fleeing while remaining on Ukrainian territory between October and November.

When the 155th was eventually deployed to Pokrovsk, it was not given any drones – the main method of battlefield reconnaissance – and electronic warfare jammers by the state.

Serhii Sternenko, a Ukrainian social media influencer and military fundraiser, said he had recently sent kit to the brigade in the absence of government supplies.

The brigade only received cash from Kyiv for drones 10 days after entering the fight.

“As a result, the brand-new Leopard 2A4 tanks and VAB armoured vehicles suffered losses during the first attempts to use them on the front from enemy drones,” Mr Butusov wrote.

Colonel Dmytro Ryumshin was sacked as the brigade’s commander within days of it being sent to the front line.

Bohdan Krotevych, the chief of staff of Ukraine’s Azov Brigade, said: “Can it be idiocy to create new brigades and equip them with such equipment, having incomplete existing ones?”

Mr Butusov added: “The brigade’s servicemen became hostages of Zelensky’s PR project, which the authorities made no effort to actually implement competently.”

The brigade has since been effectively disbanded, with its elements spread assigned to battle-hardened brigades already defending Pokrovsk.