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155th Mechanized Brigade (Ukraine)
The 155th Separate Mechanized Brigade (Ukrainian: 155 окрема механізована бригада) was a brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces formed in 2024.[2] On 4 January 2025, the brigade had been effectively disbanded due to high casualties and mass desertion.[3][4] Remaining soldiers and equipment were assigned to other brigades.[1] HistoryFormationThe 155th Infantry Brigade was formed in 2024 as part of an initiative to expand the Ukrainian Ground Forces with the creation of nine additional brigades. This effort, announced by Commander Oleksandr Pavliuk, was a direct response to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war.[5] The brigade is known by the nickname "Anne of Kyiv" after the princess who married French King Henri I at Reims cathedral to become Queen of France from 1051 to 1060.[6][7] The formation of the brigade began in March 2024.[8] The brigade was created under the provisions of a Ukrainian mobilization law, which lowered the draft age from 27 to 25 and introduced penalties for draft evasion.[9] The law also allowed convicts to join the armed forces.[9] The existence of the 155th Infantry Brigade was officially acknowledged on 8 May 2024, marking it as the first of the newly announced brigades to take shape. Rivne city council supported the brigade by donating equipment to meet the soldiers' needs during its early stages of formation. Training in France and PolandThe brigade was officially announced in France during the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on June 6, 2024.[10] By November 2024, the first wave of 2,000 soldiers had undergone training in eastern France (Camp de Châlons[11]), with plans for the brigade to eventually grow to a strength of 4,500 troops.[2] Its training and equipping were carried out under a European Union-funded program that had already trained 60,000 Ukrainian troops. France played a pivotal role, providing extensive training, equipment, and weaponry.[6] This included 18 CAESAR self-propelled howitzers, 18 AMX-10RC armored fighting vehicles, and 128 VAB armored personnel carriers.[12] In October, the brigade was visited and inspected by French President Emmanuel Macron.[13] The brigade returned to Ukraine in November, along with its integral Leopard 2A4-based tank battalion trained in Poland.[citation needed] Pokrovsk offensiveIn November 2024,[14] the 155th Brigade was deployed south of Pokrovsk to help hold positions including Shevchenko.[15] It reportedly suffered heavy losses during its first few days of combat.[16] It had been split and its elements assigned to the experienced brigades fighting in the same area, the 25th Airborne Brigade and the 68th Jaeger Brigade.[10] According to an article published on 31 December 2024 by Ukrainian journalist Yuri Butusov, the brigade had suffered from serious organisational problems since its inception. Operational Command West, responsible for the formation of the brigade, lacked the resources, manpower and command staff needed to create a new unit. The manning of the brigade started only in June, but in July and August more than 2,550 soldiers were taken away to replenish other units, effectively negating four months of work. By the time the brigade was sent to France for training in October, 935 soldiers had already gone AWOL and 50 more had deserted in France. The latter raised questions among the French leadership, which prompted the Ukrainian Stavka to launch an investigation by the Ukrainian SBI to determine who is responsible for the desertions. As a result, the brigade commander, Colonel Dmytro Ryumshin, was removed from his post just days after returning from France on November 30 (other sources state that Ryumshin left command on December 12). While the brigade command was in France, 700 more newly recruited men stationed in Ukraine went AWOL without ever seeing their commander. After the removal of the commander, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi sent a commission consisting of the OC West commander Volodymyr Shvediuk and chief of staff Oleksandr Seletsky to improve the combat effectiveness of the brigade. On 30 December, Seletsky died, reportedly from a heart attack.[8] Butusov first brought attention to the problem in a report on his YouTube channel on 14 December, where he stated that over a thousand servicemen of the brigade went AWOL after having been forcibly mobilized off the streets, which led to the replacement of the brigade commander with Colonel Taras Maksymov, which happened on 12 December.[1][17][18] Additional 198 men went AWOL during the first week of December.[8] Censor.net, citing soldiers on the frontline, reported that brigade was used mass infantry assaults in counterattacks against Russian positions and had "suffered significant losses from the very first days" which in turn led to "acute infantry shortages".[19][20] The Kyiv Post reported that by 4 January 2025, the brigade had lost all of its CAESAR self-propelled howitzers, most of its VAB APCs, and a portion of its Leopard 2 tanks, to other Ukrainian Brigades.[21] DisbandmentOn 3 January 2025, President Zelensky reportedly met with the Ukrainian Stavka regarding the situation of the brigade.[citation needed] On 4 January 2025, the brigade was disbanded, with remaining soldiers and equipment being assigned to other brigades defending Pokrovsk.[1][3] It has also remained under investigation,[14] which according to Butusov became personally overseen by Zelensky.[22] Ukrainian Ground Forces chief Mykhailo Drapatyi reported to President Zelensky that the brigade has suffered heavy losses and large numbers of soldiers had gone AWOL due to poor command and organization in its leadership after it was moved to Pokrovsk.[23][24] SBI communications advisor Tetyana Sapyan told Ukrainska Pravda that the SBI had opened a separate criminal investigation regarding reports of "abuse of power or authority" by officers of the brigade.[25][26][27] On 20 January 2025, former brigade commander Dmytro Ryumshin was detained by the SBI and charged with inaction of the military authorities committed under martial law, which is punishable by imprisonment for up to 10 years. The SBI stated that Ryumshin failed to inform law enforcement authorities of a significant number of AWOL cases and didn't take measures to prevent them. In particular, the colonel unreasonably included unmotivated men in the lists of persons scheduled for training in France, some of whom were previously detained for trying to illegally cross the border of Ukraine.[28] Ukrainian war correspondent Yuriy Butusov questioned the decision to create the unit saying "There is simply no point in creating such brigades that are not fully staffed, that have no time at all to train, as we see."[29] Structure
The brigade's structure was as follows:
See also
References
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