Trained in France, several soldiers did not return to Ukraine.
Many figures are circulating. The Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu provided details this Wednesday January 8 concerning the number of deserters in the Anne de kyiv regiment, a unit of Ukrainian soldiers trained and equipped in France. Many would have vanished into the wild instead of returning to fight for their country. According to the minister, they would be “55” to have deserted in France, he declared on Europe 1.
The general staff had recently mentioned “a few dozen” desertions during training. The brigade was “ventilated“to meet the needs of the Ukrainian army but in a rather disorderly manner to make up for losses, and other soldiers would have fled, underlines BFM. The commander of the Ukrainian land forces Mikhaïlo Drapaty admitted on Monday “problems” within the Anne brigade of kyiv after press revelations on cases of abuse of power and desertions. An investigation is underway by the State Bureau of Investigation.
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War in Ukraine: the “Anne de kyiv” brigade trained and equipped by France in the turmoil, 1,700 of its 2,300 soldiers deserted before even being deployed to the front
This brigade was made up of 2000 conscripts, without any combat experience, accompanied by 300 Ukrainian supervisors. The figure of 1700 desertions in total has been put forward. Ukrainian MP Mariana Bezougla, known for her virulent criticism of the military high command, spoke at the beginning of December of a “brigade zombie” formed for the purpose of “advertisement”.
French President Emmanuel Macron visited the soldiers of the 155th Ukrainian brigade at the beginning of October during their training in France. France gave this brigade 128 VAB troop transport vehicles, 18 AMX-10 tanks, 18 Caesar self-propelled guns as well as trucks, armored medical evacuation vehicles, Mistral anti-aircraft and Milan anti-tank missile firing points .
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