Around 1,700 Ukrainian soldiers equipped by the West have disappeared after being trained in France, leaving the rest of their brigade to face Putin’s wrath alone.
The 155th Mechanized Brigade, one of Ukraine’s few units equipped with Leopard 2 advanced battle tanks, was supposed to reinforce the country’s defenses.
Instead, at least 50 soldiers went missing while the unit was training in France, and by the time it entered its first battle, 1,700 soldiers had gone AWOL.
Even in November, 500 soldiers were still missing, causing a crisis for the brigade, also known as Anne of kyiv in honor of its historical ties to France.
This mass exodus occurred before the unit was deployed to Pokrovsk, a critical logistics center in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
When the decimated brigade finally entered combat in recent days, it suffered heavy losses, including some of its prized Leopard tanks and other armored vehicles.
The debacle has sparked an investigation by Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation into what critics call the unit’s “chaotic” formation.
The brigade was intended to have more than 5,800 soldiers and state-of-the-art Western weaponry, including French 155mm Caesar howitzers.
Kyiv’s Ana Brigade spent nine months training in western Ukraine, Poland and France.
Ukrainian soldiers fire at targets on the front line in the direction of the city of Ugledar, Donetsk.
Apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Ternopil, Ukraine, on December 2, 2024.
A drone explosion is seen in the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in kyiv, Ukraine, January 3, 2025.
The rest of the Ukrainian brigade has now been forced to face Putin’s wrath alone.
It was the centerpiece of a high-profile £747bn project jointly announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron last year.
Instead, the brigade’s collapse has exposed glaring flaws in Ukraine’s strategy to build new military units from scratch, with analysts questioning why resources were not used to reinforce battle-hardened brigades already committed to the front. .
The 155th Mechanized Brigade spent nine months training in Ukraine, Poland and France, as part of an ambitious plan to form 14 new brigades equipped with advanced Western weapons.
But critics say the project has descended into chaos, leaving soldiers ill-prepared for the battlefield and exposing Ukraine’s war effort.
Prominent war correspondent Yuriy Butusov gave a scathing assessment of the brigade’s collapse, calling it “a crime” not of the soldiers but of Ukraine’s military leadership.
The brigade’s problems reportedly began from the beginning.
Recruiting began in June last year, but many of the initial 2,500 recruits were diverted to replenish other battle-worn units.
This left only 1,924 volunteers to receive training in France, of whom only 51 had more than one year of military experience.
Surprisingly, more than 1,400 had joined the Ukrainian army just two months before being sent for exercises abroad.
The brigade was intended to have more than 5,800 soldiers and state-of-the-art Western weaponry, including French 155mm Caesar howitzers.
It was the centerpiece of a high-profile £747bn project jointly announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron last year.
Ukrainian servicemen of the mobile air defense unit fire a machine gun at Russian drones during a night patrol on December 2, 2024 in Chernihiv Oblast.
Ukrainian servicemen of the 43rd Artillery Brigade fire a 2S7 Pion self-propelled gun at Russian positions on the front line in the Donetsk region.
A member of the Ukrainian 72nd Brigade anti-aircraft unit fires at a Russian Zala reconnaissance drone overhead on February 23, 2024 near Marinka, Ukraine.
The unit also suffered an exodus during training, with more than 700 soldiers deserting on Ukrainian soil between October and November.
When the brigade was finally deployed to Pokrovsk, it was already short of personnel and resources.
Despite being equipped with some of the most advanced Western tanks and artillery, it was sent into battle without drones – the essential tool for modern reconnaissance – or electronic warfare jammers.
Analysts watching the conflict have questioned kyiv’s decision to invest in new, untested brigades rather than reinforce existing units, battered by months of fighting.
Critics warn that the fiasco not only risks undermining morale but could squander vital Western support that Ukraine depends on to repel Russian aggression.
Serhii Sternenko, a prominent Ukrainian social media influencer and military fundraiser, revealed that he had been forced to send essential equipment to the 155th Mechanized Brigade due to a worrying lack of government-provided supplies.
The brigade, deployed in Pokrovsk, reportedly received cash for reconnaissance drones just 10 days after entering combat. By then, the damage had already been done.
The British Army’s new Archer Mobile Howitzer cannon fires as British Army soldiers take part in training near Rovaniemi, in the Arctic Circle, Finland.
This photograph taken and released by the National Police of Ukraine on November 29, 2024 shows a house on fire following a drone strike at an undisclosed location in the Odessa region.
The new Leopard 2A4 tanks and French VAB armored vehicles, supplied by Western allies, were lost during their initial use, attacked by Russian drones.
Butusov attributed the failures to kyiv’s inadequate preparation, calling it a disastrous waste of Western aid.
The chaos led to the quick dismissal of Colonel Dmytro Ryumshin, the brigade commander, just days after his troops entered combat.
Even Ukraine’s military elite has expressed scathing criticism.
Bohdan Krotevych, chief of staff of the renamed Azov Brigade, questioned the logic behind creating new, poorly equipped units while veteran brigades remain undermanned.
Butusov was even more damning, describing 155 as a “PR project” of President Zelensky that failed due to his incompetence.
“The servicemen of the brigade became hostages of Zelensky’s public relations project, which the authorities made no effort to competently implement,” he stated.
Now, the once celebrated brigade has effectively been disbanded.
Its surviving troops and equipment have been dispersed among experienced units already defending Pokrovsk, marking another grim chapter in Ukraine’s battle against Putin’s forces.