Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine\u2019s president, and Emmanuel Macron, his French counterpart, announced the $900 billion (\u00a3747 billion) project to much fanfare at an event to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landing in June last year.<\/p>\n
The brigade had spent nine months training in western Ukraine, Poland and France as part of an effort by Mr Zelensky to establish 14 new brigades equipped and prepared by the West.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There has been criticism of setting up new units filled with recruits rather than using newbies to augment existing combat-blooded units.<\/p>\n
Recruitment for the brigade began in June last year but was hampered by some 2,500 recruits being plucked to replenish other units before training could begin.<\/p>\n
The 1,924 volunteers that remained were sent to France, but it emerged that only 51 of them had military experience of more than a year.<\/p>\n
The majority (1,414) had only enrolled in the Ukrainian military in the two months before they were sent for their overseas training.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I won’t quibble over the term overseas (perhaps the original author knows of an ocean between Franc and Ukraine that I missed) – more importantly, it does seem the lads were seriously short-changed by their command.<\/p>\n
As the brigade trained in France, it continued to recruit, with more than 700 of those troops fleeing while remaining on Ukrainian territory between October and November.<\/p>\n
When the 155th was eventually deployed to Pokrovsk, it was not given any drones \u2013 the main method of battlefield reconnaissance \u2013 and electronic warfare jammers by the state.<\/p>\n
Colonel Dmytro Ryumshin was sacked as the brigade\u2019s commander within days of it being sent to the front line.<\/p>\n
Mr Butusov added: \u201cThe brigade\u2019s servicemen became hostages of Zelensky\u2019s PR project, which the authorities made no effort to actually implement competently.\u201d<\/p>\n
The brigade has since been effectively disbanded, with its elements spread assigned to battle-hardened brigades already defending Pokrovsk. The Telegraph<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Is there a French proclivity to avoid battle that rubbed off on the Ukes?\u00a0 Given the solid reputation of la legion etrangeres, it’s doubtful…but losing that many deserters is not a great look for ANYONE.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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