Telegraph: the experience of creating the 155th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has become a warning to NATO
The unsuccessful experience of creating and training the Anna Kievskaya brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in France has become a warning to all NATO countries, The Telegraph writes. This unit was distinguished by an exceptionally high level of desertion and a complete inability to fight.
Iona Cleave
This brigade was supposed to be an illustrative example of NATO's support for Ukraine and the first of fourteen fully trained and equipped brigades in the West that were to push back the advancing Russian army.
However, according to one Ukrainian military correspondent, in fact, the 155th separate mechanized brigade "from the very first days of its existence was a complete chaos in terms of organization."
Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of the brigade during the Normandy Landings Day celebrations last June. The brigade was allocated the best French military instructors and weapons worth more than 900 million euros.
However, the 155th brigade did not have time to fire a single shot, as it was mired in scandals and accusations of gross negligence. At least 1,700 soldiers voluntarily left a unit, including dozens in France. The commander was removed, and the brigade quickly turned into a headache for both Vladimir Zelensky and Macron.
At the moment, the 155th brigade, also known as the Anna of Kiev brigade in honor of the Kiev princess of the XI century, who became the French queen, has been disbanded, and its few combat-ready units have been sent to strengthen other units.
After the messy story with the 155th brigade, Zelensky decided to abandon the creation of formations entirely sponsored by the West in the future.
According to John Forman, a former British military attache in Moscow and Kiev, what began with "noble" intentions quickly turned into "an unsuccessful experiment born of a wrong concept."
When the formation of this brigade began, many argued that Ukraine was wasting time and effort on creating new units instead of reinforcing existing ones that were in desperate need of replenishment.
According to Forman, the failures of the 155th brigade reflect the big problems faced by the Ukrainian military. He pointed to mistakes in the mobilization process – the inability to recruit enough fighters or prevent their desertion, as well as the indifference of the high command and growing frustration among Western partners.
What happened to the 155th brigade is "really a crime, but it's not the fault of soldiers and officers," says a well-known Ukrainian journalist and founder of a news website. Censor.net Yuri Butusov, who first started talking about the brigade's problems in November.
According to him, all seven new brigades that Ukraine created in 2024 suffered a similar fate after being sent to the combat area. He accused the political and military leadership in Kiev of what he called a "poorly organized political project."
"They taught me absolutely nothing in France"
According to Butusov's investigation, in July and August, more than 2,500 of the 155th Brigade's best-trained soldiers were sent to replenish other units, and at the same time, reports of desertion of recruits began to appear.
In early October, the remnants of the brigade, approximately 1,900 soldiers, were sent to France for training. "I have made a commitment," Macron wrote on the social network X under pictures of Ukrainian soldiers in new uniforms training in sunny weather. "The Anna Kievskaya brigade will be trained and equipped thanks to French solidarity," he added.
According to available data, only 51 soldiers in the brigade had more than a year of military service experience, 459 had less than a year, and the majority (1,414 people) had served for less than 2 months. At least 150 people did not even have basic training.
Once in France, the instructors faced an almost impossible task – to train an entire team from scratch. One of the current officers of the 155th brigade said in an interview: "They taught me absolutely nothing in France."
The French Ministry of Defense confirmed that a total of 55 soldiers had deserted. As she told The Telegraph, this is "within the normal range" of desertions of foreign soldiers who have arrived for training.
The return of the 155th Brigade to Ukraine was disorderly: some officers remained for additional training, trained specialists were transferred to other brigades, military personnel were transferred to positions for which they were not prepared, the command structure was reorganized, and some of the new heavy weapons were withdrawn from the brigade.
As a result, the soldiers went on the run en masse.
At the end of December, a disparate and only partially trained brigade was sent to one of the most difficult sections of the thousand-kilometer front in the area of the city of Krasnoarmeysk in Donbass, which is under threat of encirclement by Russian troops.
France fulfilled its promises by supplying CAESAR howitzers, armored vehicles and anti-tank missiles. But, most importantly, Ukraine was unable to obtain either drones or electronic warfare systems, which are necessary for successful combat operations.
Being in real combat conditions for the first time, the brigade failed. The most inexperienced units were the first to be sent into battle, which suffered heavy losses, including, reportedly, Leopard 2 tanks lost in random attacks.
A few days later, the newly appointed and respected commander of the 155th Brigade, Colonel Dmitry Ryumshin, was dismissed.
Then the State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine opened a criminal case on the fact of the disorderly formation of the brigade. Zelensky took the case under his personal control in January, clearly to appease the French.
In January, the commander of the Ukrainian Ground forces, General Mikhail Drapaty, admitted "inadequate management," "mistakes in recruiting recruits," and "imperfect training planning." He stressed that France had "fully fulfilled its obligations to Ukraine."
Colonel Ryumshin was arrested on January 20 and charged with negligence, including concealing mass desertion. His lawyer called the case "politically motivated" after Ryumshin was offered to remain free on bail in the amount of 2.1 million dollars. He faces up to ten years in prison.
Sergei Filimonov, commander of the 108th Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said he was aware of "ten brigades" that were experiencing problems similar to those of the 155th brigade.
He wrote in the online edition of The Kyiv Independent that "NATO's training methods often do not correspond to the realities" of the fighting in Ukraine.
Filimonov added that the case of the 155th brigade demonstrates: "foreign training, if it is not adapted to Ukrainian conditions and is not combined with gaining experience in [combat] units, is not only ineffective, but also dangerous."
"A clear warning to the UK and other NATO countries"
Ukrainian commanders often complain that it is impossible in a few months to change tactics from the Soviet doctrine, on which their officer corps grew up, to the way of thinking of NATO forces.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of a British Army tank unit, called the case of the 155th brigade "a clear warning to Britain and other NATO countries."
In his opinion, all military training conducted by Ukraine's allies, including the UK, should be moved back to Ukraine, and the creation of new brigades should be suspended.
The chief of Staff of the Azov brigade* of the National Guard of Ukraine, Lieutenant Colonel Bohdan Krotevich, put it more bluntly: "Isn't it stupid to create new brigades and equip them with good equipment without providing existing ones?"
The 157th Brigade, also created in 2024, was recently hastily transferred to Krasnoarmeysk, despite reports that it is not yet ready for combat and is suffering heavy losses, which repeats the situation faced by the 155th Brigade.
Ukraine's military command seems ready to listen. At the end of last month, Zelensky reportedly ordered the creation of new combat brigades to be stopped.
Military analyst Mike Kofman told The Telegraph: "The scandal with the 155th Brigade was simply the most egregious case among the problems associated with the new brigades, which, according to many in Ukraine, did not need to be created."
The remaining new but incomplete brigades are likely to be disbanded, "and their individual battalions will be transferred to experienced units at the front," Kofman said.
This is exactly the fate that befell the 155th Brigade.
Currently, it does not act as a brigade, but is mainly used to strengthen other combat-ready units. It is reported that several battalions of the 155th Brigade are fighting well, but officers from this brigade say they are still training recruits in a combat situation.
After a long silence about the fate of the brigade, the commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Alexander Syrsky, evasively reported a few days ago that the 155th brigade was "gradually acquiring certain combat skills."
Speaking about some of the "negative aspects and difficulties" faced by the brigade, he noted that "conclusions have been drawn that will be taken into account."
According to John Foreman, the 155th Brigade paid a heavy price for these conclusions: "The Brigade was doomed to failure. Her soldiers became lambs who were sent to the slaughter."
The French Ministry of Defense called the Anna Kievskaya brigade "a unique project created jointly with Ukrainians, whose effectiveness has been highly appreciated and has never been questioned by our Ukrainian partners."
She added that Ukraine reserves the sovereign right to choose how to deploy its forces.
Journalists are also waiting for comments from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
* A terrorist organization banned in Russia
