It was supposed to be at the vanguard of a modernized Ukrainian Army, trained in Western tactics by French instructors, armed with Western weaponry, equipped to take on a bigger Russian Army on the battlefield.
That hasn't happened.
Instead, the Ukrainian military’s 155th Separate Mechanized Brigade has been roiled by desertions, incriminations, and now, scathing public criticism accusing commanders of incompetence.
The brigade’s commander was abruptly replaced last month just after the unit returned from training in France, and Ukraine’s lead law enforcement agency is investigating reports that dozens, possibly hundreds, of its soldiers have gone AWOL, or absent without leave.
The 155th’s problems have burst into the open at a wrenching time for Ukraine, with its population exhausted from nearly three years of full-scale war and its military exhausted from relentless Russian offensives.
The problems, and the public venting, also illustrate the wider issues that have plagued Ukraine's military for months, if not years -- and, experts say, have hampered its ability to wage an effective full-scale defense, or offense, against a larger, better-equipped Russian force.
“The training that I imagined should happen in the third year of war, what it should have been like, is not there,” one lieutenant, currently on unauthorized leave from the brigade, told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.” “I, for one, do not know what I am supposed to do. I'm not ready to give up and execute any orders with untrained people. Plus, I’m untrained myself. I command 30-something people. I'm not ready to risk their lives.”
“In France, I was taught absolutely nothing,” said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity since public criticism of the military can result in criminal prosecution.
At least 59 soldiers from the brigade left the training grounds in France without authorization, the officer said, a figure that was echoed by Yuriy Butusov, a popular Ukrainian war correspondent who described the brigade as “complete organizational chaos.”
In an interview, Butusov said the decision behind the brigade’s training and formation were more political than anything.
“There is simply no point in creating such brigades that are not fully staffed, that have no time at all to train, as we see,” he told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service. “If we say we need a new brigade, then this is a matter that should take at least a year to complete. In addition to individual training, we need to ensure management at many levels.”
Inevitable Chaos?
Western allies have poured billions of dollars into weaponry and equipment for Ukraine’s armed forces, equipping them with modern technology to fight a bigger Russian Army with more weaponry as its disposal.
They also sought to retrain Ukraine’s armed forces, moving them away from the doctrine and tactics that its senior Soviet-trained officer corps grew up on, and introducing NATO-style thinking, such as combined arms warfare and emphasizing smaller brigades, rather than larger divisions.
But aside from weaponry, Ukraine also faced a bigger problem: manpower. Critics in and out of Ukraine grumbled that Ukrainian authorities were failing to build a sustainable system of recruitment, mobilization, and training, to replenish depleted units.
Ukrainian command created several new brigades. Some units were sent to Germany for training. Another unit was set up in France last year to great fanfare: the 155th Separate Mechanized Brigade was dubbed the “Anne of Kyiv” Brigade, named for an 11th century Kyiv princess who later became Queen of France. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the unit’s creation during anniversary celebrations for the World War II Normandy invasion in June.
Two months later, about 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers -- about the half the size of a standard NATO brigade -- were sent to France for training that included instruction on advanced French weapons systems; Macron later paid a highly publicized visit to the unit in October.
When the 155th began rotating back to Ukraine in late November, Ukrainian forces had already been struggling for months trying to stave off accelerating Russian offensives in multiple places across the roughly 1,100-kilometer front line.
On December 12, the brigade’s commander, Colonel Dmytro Ryumshin, was replaced, just days before it was supposed to head into combat. The reason for Ryumshin’s dismissal was unclear, but he posted a statement on the brigade’s Facebook page thanking the unit’s soldiers and officers for their “loyalty and professionalism.”
Days earlier, lawmaker Maryana Bezuhla criticized how the brigade was conceived, saying it was patched together haphazardly from other units, which in turn deprived other units of troop strength.
“What happened to the 155th: even though the French attempted to make the brigade specialized, it wasn’t spared from stupid military decisions, which tore the unit apart,” she wrote on Facebook. "Within the brigade chaos reigns."
That was echoed by Serhiy Sternenko, an activist and blogger who writes about public corruption and was previously affiliated with a far-right paramilitary group.
“Why create a new brigade when the existing brigades were critically understaffed, if it was then divided up to assign people to the old brigades? What's the point?” Sternenko said in a post to X. “In addition to the blow to our image in French eyes, where part of the brigade was trained and equipped with equipment, we again suffered high losses and exhaustion.”
“This madness must be stopped before it completely undermines the army's ability to organize resistance,” he wrote.
'I'd Rather Go AWOL'
Despite the reported organizational problems, the brigade has deployed in part to help in the defense of Pokrovsk, a Donbas city that is under major threat of encirclement by Russian forces. Reports say the unit fielded German-made Leopard tanks and French artillery.
But the brigade lieutenant who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity said some equipment they were provided was broken; excavators, for example, used to dig trenches and defenses. He also described some of the problems with command orders.
“When we returned from France, some part of the brigade was already near Pokrovsk,” he said. “Then we received an order to transfer to the infantry, and a lot of people went AWOL. Days later, we were sent to the Dnipropetrovsk region. And the next day, we received an order to go to a settlement 20 kilometers from the front line.
“My commander wrote to me: ‘Gather nine people. Tomorrow you’re going to a specific place.’ I asked him what we were supposed to do there. He said: ‘I don't know’,” the lieutenant said. “That is, the commanders are unprofessional, they haven’t trained people.”
He said some soldiers think “I'd rather go AWOL. If I get caught, then at least, sooner or later, the prison door will open. The lid of a coffin will never open.”
Unconfirmed reports suggest that the brigade has suffered disproportionate casualties in the defense of Pokrovsk, something Butusov said was significant.
“Most of the 155th soldiers on the front line are trying to fulfill their duties honestly,” Butusov wrote in his December 31 Facebook post. “But due to a certain criminal attitude toward soldiers’ lives, the 155th Brigade has suffered significant losses from the very first days” of deployment.
Fear And Hope As Battle For Ukraine’s Pokrovsk Looms
Another brigade soldier, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Butusov’s criticism was largely true but was incomplete.
“The situation with the formation was even worse than he described,” the soldier said.
The State Bureau of Investigation, Ukraine’s lead law investigative agency, confirmed to RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service that it was investigating the reports of soldiers deserting. A brigade press officer declined to comment.
Asked about the brigade’s problems, France’s presidential office, Elysee Palace, referred the question to the French Defense Ministry.
"It was the Ukrainian Armed Forces that organized the selection of Ukrainian military personnel to form this brigade and manage the processes,” the ministry said. “Also…the Ukrainian Armed Forces determine the conditions for the [brigade’s] deployment in Ukraine.”
