Faces are tense on Monday in this basement of the administration of a small town in eastern Ukraine, kept secret for security reasons. For the first time, Colonel Taras Maksymov appears in front of journalists, to provide explanations on the affair of the 155th “Anne of Kyiv” brigade, named after this Ukrainian princess who became Queen of France a thousand years ago , of which 2,300 of the 4,500 newly mobilized soldiers were trained this fall in a base in eastern France.
Cases of desertions
On December 31, the military journalist Yuriy Butusov, well known in Ukraine, published a detailed investigation, recounting the engagement in combat near Pokrovsk, the hottest point of the war, of this brand new brigade “without command personnel , without technical specialists, without [suffisamment] weapons, without drones”, while the Ukrainian Bureau of Investigation is looking into “abuse of power” and cases of desertions, which led to the arrest, on Wednesday, of a first commander.
On Monday, Colonel Taras Maksymov made amends. “The problems exist, of course, but we are all working to resolve them,” he said, as the leadership attempts to repair the reputational damage caused by the media coverage of the investigation. Would France have formed a “zombie brigade”, of which a third of its personnel would have deserted? The matter is much more complex, as the Ukrainian army faces the challenge of transforming civilians into operational soldiers in a few months.
A “lack of confidence”
Several sources shed light on the setbacks of the “French brigade”. The Ukrainian general staff admits that, out of 2,300 soldiers trained in France, around fifty deserted during their stay. On the other hand, in 2024, around 1,700 soldiers went on an “unauthorized exit from unit” (SZCh), not comparable to desertion, a particularity of Ukrainian law that soldiers, yesterday civilians, use to withdrawn, and report command problems or request a change of assignment.
Maksymov believes that “the level of preparation [en France] was very high but a “lack of trust” or a feeling of non-legitimacy became widespread. A feeling of fear of death, of being sent into combat in the infantry, when many officers are inexperienced themselves. Another problem: the Ukrainians were able to bring back to Ukraine the Caesar cannons or the French AMX-10 armored vehicles but did not receive, from their hierarchy, enough drones and electronic warfare equipment.
“The brigade is growing”
As a result, in December, the 155th, not yet ready enough, suffered “several hundred deaths”, according to a volunteer. These initial shocks are classic, since 2022, and are not specific to the 155th. “I do not consider the situation critical because it has already started to improve. The brigade develops, fights, it inflicts losses on the enemy,” believes the respected Mykhailo Drapaty, hero of Kherson, in 2022, recently appointed head of the Ukrainian Army, for whom war rarely takes place as expected.
Belgium
