More than 2,300 Ukrainian soldiers were armed and trained by France, forming the bulk of the “Anne of kyiv” brigade.
But press investigations revealed that nearly half had deserted, including around fifty during their training in France.
The Ukrainian army has just acknowledged “problems” for the first time, but has downplayed the scale of the desertions.
The French Ministry of Defense, for its part, admitted “a few dozen on French soil”.
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Ukraine: almost three years of war
The commander of the Ukrainian ground forces Mikhailo Drapaty admitted this Monday “problems” within the “Anne de kyiv” brigade, partly trained and equipped by France, after press revelations on cases of abuse of power and desertions. The approximately 2,300 soldiers of this battalion were partly trained in France, during a nine-week training course in the fall of 2023.
“I confirm of course that there were problems with the command and the training process”admitted Mikhaïlo Drapaty to several media, including AFP. “As far as possible, all these issues are being resolved”he continued, assuring that the number of desertions of soldiers trained in France was “minimum”. A little over an hour later, the French Ministry of Defense in turn admitted that “a few dozen desertions” had been recorded on French soil.
It was the Ukrainian journalist Yurii Butusov who revealed massive desertions, as we can hear in the TF1 report at the top of this article. According to him, “the majority of those who deserted are civilians, who never had training in Ukraine”. He estimates that a thousand soldiers deserted the Anne brigade of kyiv, and that around fifty fled during the training on French soil.
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“They were not locked up in camps”: Ukrainian recruits deserted during their training in France
If the training in France took place on protected military sites, the principle of their security was not to prevent the soldiers from going out, General Jérôme Pellistrandi reminded TF1 this weekend. “When these units came to train in France, they were not locked up in camps, the soldiers could move in the evening”he explained.
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