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The ex-commander of the one hundred and fifty fifth Mechanized Brigade has been arrested, with bail set at $2.1 million.
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Col. Dmytro Ryumshin led the “Anne of Kyiv” brigade till stepping down abruptly in December.
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The unit was hyped as French-trained however has confronted studies of mass desertion earlier than deploying.
A court docket in Kyiv has set bail for Col. Dmytro Ryumshin, the not too long ago changed commander of Ukraine’s one hundred and fifty fifth Mechanized Brigade, at $2.1 million.
His lawyer, Bohdan Zabara, informed Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne of the court docket’s resolution on Wednesday.
It comes as Ukraine probes a sequence of scandals which have marred the fight debut of the one hundred and fifty fifth — a brand new brigade partially skilled in France and outfitted with trendy French weaponry.
Nicknamed “Anne of Kyiv” after an Eleventh-century Kyiv princess who turned a French queen, it was touted as a approach for Europe to straight strengthen Ukraine’s starved manpower. However the brigade’s repute soured at dwelling as native journalists reported that it continually suffered from mass desertion and was being picked aside to bolster different models.
One reporter, Yuriy Butusov, estimated that 1,700 males had gone AWOL earlier than the one hundred and fifty fifth was despatched into battle, together with about 50 males who abandoned in France.
Ryumshin oversaw the one hundred and fifty fifth because it ready to deploy on the entrance strains, however immediately introduced his resignation in early December.
Federal investigators arrested him on Monday, accusing him of the “systematic concealment” of desertion amongst his troops. The State Bureau of Investigation stated Ryumshin acquired each verbal and written studies of self-discipline points, however had neither notified increased authorities nor acted upon this info.
“Because of the commander’s actions, legislation enforcement officers had been unable to provoke the authorized process to seek for and return servicemen to their navy unit and reserve battalions, or in some instances, make sure that they served their sentences for the crimes they dedicated,” the investigators stated.
Ryumshin’s lawyer, Zabara, informed Suspilne that the colonel would contest the bail quantity set by authorities in Kyiv. Ought to he fail to satisfy bail, he should serve 60 days in detention earlier than his closed-door listening to.
Zabara didn’t reply to a remark request despatched outdoors common enterprise hours by Enterprise Insider.
In the meantime, the one hundred and fifty fifth’s social media accounts present that its males at the moment are combating round Pokrovsk, the place Russia has been pushing slowly however relentlessly to seize the important thing strategic metropolis.
The brigade is supplied with 18 AMX 10 armored autos, 18 truck-mounted Caesar howitzers, and 128 armored troop carriers. It loved a comparatively excessive profile whereas coaching in France, with French President Emmanuel Macron meeting its troops throughout an October go to.
And it seems like Europe is not carried out with these joint coaching packages. The European Union has allocated $425 million to coaching extra Ukrainian troopers till the top of 2026, together with 15,000 by the winter of 2025.
However at dwelling, the one hundred and fifty fifth’s repute remains to be shaky. Some fighters and analysts in Ukraine imagine it was a mistake for Kyiv to make brand-new brigades just like the one hundred and fifty fifth as an alternative of replenishing older, extra skilled models that had been already combating.
Serhii Sternenko, a well known Ukrainian lawyer who provides crowdfunded drones to military units, stated his group was helping the one hundred and fifty fifth as a result of the brigade lacked formally offered drones and jammers.
“Why create a brand new brigade when present brigades are critically understaffed, solely to later divide it and switch personnel to the previous brigades? What is the level?” he wrote in early January on his Telegram channel.
Because the one hundred and fifty fifth geared as much as enter the fray, its males had been additionally typically siphoned off by different brigades in determined want, leaving the French-trained drive to haphazardly reassign its troops to positions they did not practice for.
Sergey Filimonov, commander of Ukraine’s 108th Battalion, wrote on January 10 that he knew of about “10 such brigades working below these circumstances.”
He added that Western coaching strategies, whereas offered by NATO troops, “typically fail to align with the realities of recent warfare” in Ukraine.
“The realities of recent warfare present that overseas coaching, except tailored to Ukrainian circumstances and built-in with unit practices, isn’t solely ineffective however harmful,” he wrote in an opinion piece revealed by Ukrainska Pravda.
Ukrainian leaders seem like listening. Butusov, the journalist who broke the information about desertion within the one hundred and fifty fifth, reported on January 12 that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had ordered for all freshly mobilized troops to be despatched to present brigades as an alternative of being assigned to newly shaped models.
The Ukrainian and French protection ministries didn’t reply to remark requests despatched outdoors common enterprise hours by BI.
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