The commander of the Ukrainian land forces Mikhaïlo Drapaty recognized on Monday “problems” within the “Anne of kyiv” brigade, partly trained and equipped by France, after press revelations on cases of abuse of power and desertions.
“I confirm of course that there were problems with the command and the training process,” he admitted to several media, including AFP. “As far as possible, all these problems are being resolved,” he continued, assuring that the number of desertions of soldiers trained in France was “minimal”.
This Monday evening, the French army spoke of “a few dozen desertions” of Ukrainian soldiers. Desertions “which remain very marginal given the volume of people who have been trained”, indicated a senior staff official. According to him, the trained soldiers were subject to “a regime (…) imposed by the Ukrainian command”.
But “we do not criminalize desertion in France,” he stressed. “If someone deserted, a French prosecutor had no authority to arrest that individual. And the right granted to the Ukrainian authorities on French soil is just a disciplinary right.”
This brigade has been the subject of controversy since its return last month from France, where 2,300 of its 4,500 soldiers were trained.
According to renowned Ukrainian journalist Yuri Boutoussov, nearly 1,700 soldiers from the brigade deserted, most of them before their unit was even deployed to the front, and 50 during training in France.
In a long message on Facebook on Tuesday, he accused the Ukrainian military command of having failed in the initial training of the brigade, which took place in “complete organizational chaos” and of having sent his soldiers to other units to “plug the holes” in terms of staff. According to him, what remained of the brigade was sent to Pokrovsk, one of the hottest sectors of the Eastern Front, while its commander was dismissed, as well as several of his subordinates.
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