““Now the units of the brigade are receiving additional equipment, the brigade has been reinforced with unmanned units,” the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“This is a newly formed brigade that underwent training on the territory of France and acquires capabilities in the course of hostilities, having its own brigade defense strip in the Pokrovsky direction,” the message says.
According to the General Staff, even before “some organizational problems of the 155th OMBr became known from the media, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ordered an inspection of the situation, in particular, regarding a significant number of cases of voluntary desertion of the military unit.”
The General Staff noted that measures are being taken to improve the discipline and psychological state of servicemen.
“This made it possible to reduce the number of cases of SZH. Now the units of the brigade are receiving additional equipment, the brigade has been reinforced with unmanned units,” the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.
Earlier today, the commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Major General Mykhailo Drapaty, commented on the situation surrounding the 155th separate mechanized brigade “Anna Kyivska”. He admitted that the problems reported in the media “occurred”, but they will be resolved later.
“I am sure that what was announced will be refuted in time,” he said.
The situation in the 155th mechanized brigade became public on December 31, when journalist Yuriy Butusov wrote about it. According to him, even before the first battle, more than a thousand mobilized men voluntarily left the unit, the brigade commander was dismissed, and one of the leaders responsible for the formation of the brigade died of a heart attack.
Meanwhile, on January 6, the France-Presse agency, citing an official representative of the French army, reported that several dozen of over two thousand Ukrainian soldiers from the 155th “Anna of Kyiv” brigade deserted during training.
“There have been some desertions, but they remain very small considering the number of people who have been trained,” a French army official told the agency.
According to the results of the meeting with the commanders of the unmanned systems units, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that “he paid special attention to building the capabilities of the unmanned systems unit of the 155th mechanized brigade, as well as problematic issues that need to be solved.” This was stated in his telegram post on January 5.
Syrskyi did not specify which problematic issues are being discussed.
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 main strike force of the brigade was taken away – the division of the latest 155-mm Caesar guns and transferred 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.