Journalist Butusov told about the catastrophic situation in the 155th Brigade Anna de Kyiv, which was trained in France

The Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation has launched a criminal case into the circumstances of the formation of the 155th Anna de Kyiv Mechanized Brigade, which is currently located near Pokrovsk, and before that was trained in France.

Source. This was reported by journalist and editor of Censor.Net Yuriy Butusov in a post on the social network.

He noted that he conducted a deep investigation to find out the reasons why the brigade is in a catastrophic situation, which led to significant losses among personnel and equipment and mass desertion.

Butusov blames the leaders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Headquarters, the Ministry of Defense, and the General Staff, "who continue to waste lives and state funds on new projects, instead of strengthening experienced and combat-ready brigades. And they are trying to avoid responsibility and put it to the officers in a hopeless situation who have to conduct a political project poorly organized by the top leadership," he writes.

The problem is that instead of training new fighters and replenishing existing brigades which already have experienced leadership, Zelensky came up with a plan for our NATO allies to form 14 new brigades, for the creation of which there were no commanders and leader stuff, says Butusov.

The cost of creating a new brigade in France is estimated at 900 million euros – 80% of these funds were to be invested directly in technical equipment and the process of training fighters. France has fully fulfilled all obligations to arm and train the brigade, the journalist emphasizes.

However, even at the time of training the brigade in France, 50 servicemen deserted from it.

"This raised questions among the French leadership about the seriousness of the Ukrainians' attitude to the implementation of such an expensive project. A scandal broke out, the issue was raised at the Headquarters, and the State Bureau of Investigation opened a criminal case,” the post says.

According to Butusov, the 155th brigade began to form (in Ukraine) in March 2024. An experienced officer, Dmytro Ryumshin, was appointed as its commander, “it looked promising.”

The formation and staffing of the brigade was the responsibility of the Operational Command “West”, the commander was General Shvedyuk, the Chief of Staff was Colonel Seletsky, and the commander of the ground forces was General Pavlyuk.

“But from the very beginning it turned out that the OC “West” had neither command personnel, nor soldiers, nor weapons, nor resources to create a new unit. The formation of the 155th brigade from the first days was a complete organizational chaos in literally all components,” Butusov points out.

Due to poor organization, during the spring and summer, the brigade experienced massive desertion; by the time the brigade left for training in France in October, the desertion had reached almost 1,000 people, “so it was clear that this would continue in France,” he notes.

Butusov calls the main problem that in the summer months the leadership constantly removed minimally trained servicemen from the brigade to “fill holes” in other areas of the front.

“In July and August, more than 2,550 servicemen were removed from the 155th brigade to replenish other units. That is, they removed almost all of the fully fit from the brigade, destroying all of the previous four months of work, and then… they gave an order to everyone who remained to prepare for a trip to France at the end of September,” he emphasizes.

“So, the command of the OC “West” sent to France not an organized and managed military unit that could learn a lot, but a crowd of new people just dressed in military uniforms,” the journalist notes.

At the same time, he adds that most of the soldiers of the brigade sent to France did not desert and took part in training.

Meanwhile in Ukraine, the instructors of the OC “West” were training another 4,000 fighters newly mobilized to replenish the brigade.

In the absence of the brigade commanders (who were in France), the command of the OC “West” began to transfer untrained and uncoordinated people to the Pokrovsk area.

Since the brigade commanders were in France, the quality of training of the personnel who were in Ukraine at the OC “West” training center was low.

"It is impossible to train a poorly organized and unmanaged team" – the investigation quotes instructors from the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, whom OC "West" involved in the combat training of the 155th Brigade.

After the brigade commander Ryumshin returned from France and arrived in Pokrovsk, the commission charged him at mass desertion, and the brigade commander was dismissed because of this.

"Brigadier General Ryumshin, who had just managed to create some minimal control in this chaos and tried to save the situation, was dismissed from his post. Several staff officers, one of the battalion commanders also were dismissed. New commanders were appointed who had no understanding at the situation in the brigade. As a result, the chaos in management only intensified," Butusov writes.

From the first day of performing combat missions, significant losses of people began due to poor control and lack of training, he notes.

In addition, Butusov emphasizes that although the Anna de Kyiv brigade was fully equipped with infantry, artillery, and armored vehicles , but it did not have drones – the main means of intelligence and control in modern warfare, which made it actually limitedly suitable for conducting combat operations.

Funds for drones were raised by volunteers, the main problem is still the lack of trained operators. And the 155th brigade received 17 million hryvnias from the Ministry of Defense for buying a batch of drones only 10 days after entering the battle, the investigation says.

At the same time, the brigade never received funds for electronic warfare.

“As a result, the brand-new Leopard-2A4 tanks and VAB armored vehicles suffered losses, attacked by enemy drones at the very first attempts to use them at the battle,” Butusov notes.

The division of the newest 155 mm self-propelled guns "Caesar", all other brigade artillery did not have time to complete a full firing course, and are learning to shoot while performing combat missions.

Nevertheless, he emphasizes that most of the soldiers of the 155th mechanized brigade at the frontline are trying to honestly fulfill their duties.

“But as a result of such a criminal attitude towards the lives of soldiers, the 155th brigade has been suffering significant losses from the first days. There are combat troops there who go on the assault because there is no one else, there are soldiers there who fight until the end for every position, and from the first days they do real feats, I saw it myself near Pokrovsk,” the journalist points out.

He called for those responsible for the current situation to be held accountable. In particular, Butusov considers the following to be the culprits:

- President Volodymyr Zelensky, “who made unrealistic promises to [the French President] Macron and did not control the situation at all”;

- Defense Minister Umerov, “who did not pay any attention to how such an important combat brigade is being prepared and equipped”;

- Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Syrskyi, who “is unable to organize the planned process of organizing, training and using reserves”;

- the command of the ground forces – Pavlyuk, and the commander of the OC “West” – Shvedyuk, “who knew what was happening, but blindly carried out an inadequate order to send an unfit unit to the front.”

Because of this attitude of the leadership, the defense of the city of Pokrovsk was on the verge of collapse, Butusov emphasizes, calling for help to the 155th brigade to save people.

Background. As reported on November 15, France completed the training of the Ukrainian Anna de Kyiv brigade, numbering 4 500 fighters. French officers who participated in the training believed that the brigade could become a force that would change the rules of the game on the battlefield.