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Maiden Combat of the 155th Mechanized Brigade Was Disastrous: A Look at Underlying Problems [1]
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Date: 2025-01-03
Ukraine’s 155th Mechanized Brigade is one of 14 new units planned to bolster its fight against Russia. The brigade was trained in France and equipped with German Leopard 2 tanks and French Caesar 155mm howitzers, at a cost of about 900 million Euros. France graciously named it the Anne de Kiev Brigade, in reference to the Kiev-born princess who long ago became queen of France by her marriage to King Henri I.
Fresh from completing its training, in December the 155th first saw combat in the Pokrovsk area. It lost many troops as well as tanks and armored vehicles.
As a newly formed unit, the 155th is plagued with problems. Before it got to the frontline, 1700 of the brigade’s 5800 troops had gone AWOL: absent without leave, a euphemism for desertion. As soon as it entered combat, its commander, Brigadier Dmytro Riumshyn, was removed.
Yuri Butusov, a journalist frequently quoted by Forbes David Axe and founder of Censor.Net, wrote a scathing article tracing the 155th’s ineffectiveness to higher echelons: Defense Minister Umerov, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Syrskyi, and ultimately President Zelensky, who together
waste lives and state resources on new projects (i.e. the formation of new units) instead of strengthening experienced and battle-ready brigades.
According to Butusov, the 155th “project” itself was mismanaged. Last summer, the 2550 troops designated for training in France were re-assigned to reinforce other units. It was those not selected for training who got trained. They were a hodgepodge with sketchy military experience.
… 1924 servicemen were sent to France as part of the 155th Brigade, of whom only 51 had more than a year of military service, 459 had up to a year of experience, and the majority, 1414, had just enlisted and served for less than 2 months. Particularly problematic were about 150 people who had just been recruited without any selection and were sent to France without even passing the BGMT (basic general military training)! Among them was the highest number of deserters, with a total of about 50 soldiers from the brigade fleeing in France.
As Kyiv has opened an investigation into the 155th, Butusov claims that Brigadier Riumshyn is being scapegoated for the embarrassing desertions in France. In reality, the low-entry level of those sent appears as a missed opportunity.
95% of the brigade's commanders had not fought in the war and needed extensive training and selection before they could be trusted with command. 100% of the brigade's technical specialists had to be trained from scratch—for drones, equipment, and management—and there was no time to shape them into proper specialists.
From its inception in March to November, the 155th has seen seven changes in staffing, “which made it impossible to assign and train people in their roles.” Among these changes:
- The brigade staff that went to France for training in September - all those who were available at that time were transferred to other positions due to a shortage of people, so the specialists of the EW (Electronic Warfare) and UASs (Unmanned Aerial Systems) companies were sent to infantry positions to cover the shortage and did not receive training in their specialties; - The brigade's staffing after returning to France in November—due to the replenishment of the brigade with 4,000 people, it was necessary to integrate them into all units and provide them with professional training, which required transferring personnel again, including those who had already served, reassigning to other positions some of those who had trained outside their specialty, and sending several hundred newly recruited soldiers to training centers.
On top of desertions and unstable staffing, armament, insufficient preparedness and ammunition are another critical problem. The Brigade was to receive 150 drones, 137 of them being Chinese-made commercial Mavic-3s.
This number is insignificant, considering the staffing plan envisioned six UAV ((Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) platoons in each mechanized and rifle battalion, as well as a UAV battalion comprising three companies. However, the brigade did not receive a SINGLE drone from the state to carry out combat missions. There was also a complete lack of electronic warfare systems, no time to equip all combat vehicles with reliable grids, and no grids themselves. As a result, the brand-new Leopard-2A4 tanks and VAB armored vehicles were damaged by enemy drones during the first attempts to use them at the front. The VAB armored vehicles and AMX-10 tanks were not even serviced upon arrival at the border, causing many technical problems. The division of the latest 155 mm Caesar self-propelled howitzers (SPHs), as well as the rest of the brigade's artillery and mortar crews, did not have the opportunity to complete a comprehensive firing course and are learning to shoot during combat missions. All 120 mm mortar shells supplied to the brigade, manufactured by the Ministry of Strategic Industries, turned out to be faulty. (Yet), the Ministry of Defense neither oversees the quality control of mortar supplies to the troops nor removes faulty ammunition from service.
Butusov concludes:
… people, money, and time were spent to form a brigade that, due to its low combat capability, cannot be employed as a brigade. The 155th fights as an attached unit to specific subunits within the line of other combat-ready units, meaning that money was spent on the brigade, but it is being used as mere marching reinforcement, which any combat-ready brigade would have trained far better and deployed much more effectively. So why was it formed if it cannot be used as intended? For PR and reports? And is it worth it, Messrs. Zelenskyy, Umerov, and Syrskyi, the lives of dozens of people dying near Pokrovsk as part of the 155th, due to basic disorder and poor preparation that stemmed from your mistakes in task setting, planning, and organization? Will you testify to the SBI investigators about how you led the 155th Brigade to such a state, how you squandered significant funds from our allies and Ukrainian citizens, how, instead of strengthening the front, you disrupted the organization and training of reserves, and undermined the defense of Pokrovsk?
According to Forbes David Axe, the 155th has now been integrated with seasoned brigades. Which is what other Ukrainian military analysts say should have been done in the first place.
An opinion by Butusov was published in Euromaidan this week. It is no less damning but offers a way ahead: Command and Consequences: Ukraine’s Systematic Failures and Potential Solutions.
Dissent is permissible in Ukraine, just like in the West. The question is whether or not it will have an effect.
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