“Bobrovska says that currently several structures are involved in the investigation of SZH cases, among which are the OK “Zakhid” and the Ministry of Defense”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“We are keeping our finger on the pulse, I asked the head of the committee to raise this issue. I also had a conversation with the commander of OK Zahid separately. And yesterday we had a huge meeting about the SZH, which took up the whole day, actually, this discussion. We want to invite the parties to this story to the next meeting and listen in order to make a decision or make a recommendation,” said Bobrovska.
It is known that relatives of the people’s deputy serve in the brigade. Bobrovska says that they “just returned from France and are already in the Pokrovsky direction. There was a bit of confusion, because they really just passed the BZVP, but there were no comments about training in France.” According to her, several structures are currently investigating cases of SZH, including the “Zakhid” OC and the Ministry of Defense. The deputy also said that “a large number of people from the 155th brigade were ordered to be transferred to other branches and types of forces.”
“OK Zahid” formed this brigade, therefore it is responsible for conducting the investigation. The main inspection of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine is also conducting an investigation. But OK “Zahid” does not play the key violin of blame, and I know that OK “Zahid” reported about problems in the formation and moments with human potential, in particular, to the military command. As far as I know, the warning that this brigade is not ready to go to France for training has been communicated to the higher military command. In particular, because there was a huge number of people – I don’t want to specify the number, in fact it is a large number – more than the one who went to France, it was an order to transfer this number to other branches and types of forces,” said the People’s Deputy.
On the night of January 5, journalist Yuriy Butusov wrote that, according to Censor.NET sources, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi heard information about the situation in the 155th mechanized brigade at the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and declared that he was taking the investigation under personal control.
Butusov noted that the president was most interested in “the circumstances of the desertion in France of several dozen servicemen of the brigade and the voluntary abandonment of part of 1,700 servicemen during the formation of the brigade in Ukraine.”
“At this time, the 155th mechanized brigade continues to heroically defend Pokrovsk, despite great difficulties. For some reason, the brigade took away its main striking force – a division of the latest 155-mm “Caesar” guns, and gave it to another brigade,” Butusov emphasized in the same post.
At the same time, President of Ukraine Zelenskyi reported in the evening briefing on January 4 that he listened to Sirsky’s report on the situation at the front, but did not mention the meeting of the Headquarters and did not comment on the events surrounding the 155th brigade.
In the first days of 2025, Yuriy Butusov wrote about the problems of formation, training of personnel, support and functioning of the newly created 155th OMBr named after Anna of Kyiv. According to him, even before the first battle, the unit arbitrarily left more than a thousand mobilized, the commander of the brigade was dismissed, and one of the leaders responsible for the formation of the brigade died of a heart attack.
Despite this, after training in France, the brigade was transferred to Pokrovsk.
Also, according to Butusov, the unit did not receive a single drone from the state, but exclusively from volunteers.
State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) is investigating the facts presented in the media regarding the 155th mechanized brigade “Anna Kyivska”, the proceedings are being investigated under the articles of abuse of authority and desertion, DBR communications adviser Tetyana Sapyan told RFE/RL.
The creation of the 155th brigade “Anna of Kyiv” was part of the project to form new brigades, for which Ukraine had to find people, and international partners – weapons. France participated in the preparation and arming of the brigade.