DAILY MAIL | Published January 3, 2025
Around 1,700 Ukrainian troops equipped by the West have disappeared after being trained in France, leaving the remainder of their brigade to face Putin‘s wrath alone.
The 155th Mechanised Brigade, one of Ukraine‘s few units equipped with advanced Leopard 2 battle tanks, was supposed to bolster the country’s defences.
Instead, at least 50 soldiers disappeared while the unit trained in France, and by the time it entered its first battle, 1,700 troops had gone absent without leave.
Even as late as November, 500 soldiers remained unaccounted for, sparking a crisis for the brigade, also known as Anne of Kyiv in honour of its historical ties with France.
This mass exodus occurred before the unit was deployed to Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
When the depleted brigade finally entered combat in recent days, it suffered heavy losses, including some of its prized Leopard tanks and other armoured vehicles.
The debacle has prompted an investigation by Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations into what critics are calling the ‘shambolic’ formation of the unit.
The brigade was intended to feature over 5,800 troops and state-of-the-art Western weaponry, including French Caesar 155mm howitzers.
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SOURCE: www.dailymail.co.uk
RELATED: 1,700 West-trained Ukrainian soldiers flee before reaching frontlines: Report
Ukrainian soldiers of the 1st Separate Assault Battalion Da Vinci take part in a training exercise in the Dnipropetrovsk region, on December 12, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP File
FIRSTPOST | Published January 3, 2025
Nearly a third of all soldiers of a high-profile Ukrainian brigade have fled over the past one year, according to a report.
As Russia continued to make gains in the war on Ukraine throughout 2024, pushing Ukraine on the backfoot, Ukraine suffered with a serious problem: desertion.
As Russia’s war on Ukraine nears the three-year mark, Ukrainian soldiers are exhausted. Some units have been fighting for more than two years straight and, in the absence of soldiers who could replace them, they are not being rotated. This is not just creating personnel issues or driving desertion but also having implications on the battlefield — as seen in Vuhledar that Russia captured late last year.
Amid such a situation, The Daily Telegraph has reported that as many 1,700 of 5,800 soldiers of Ukraine’s 155th mechanised brigade fled.
As per the latest update, 500 are still at large while the rest have retired after various periods of being absent without leave (AWOL), according to The Telegraph.
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SOURCE: www.firstpost.com
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