Ukraine probes reports hundreds fled French-trained army unit

KYIV: Ukraine has opened a criminal probe into desertion and “abuse of power” after hundreds of soldiers were reported to have fled an army unit partly trained by France, investigators said on Thursday.

The 155th Mechanised Brigade, dubbed “Anne of Kyiv”, was one of several military groupings formed last year as Ukraine sought to boost preparations for possible new Russian offensives.

The unit was to be made up of 4,500 soldiers, with France training roughly half of them and providing equipment, but its development has been beset with problems including what one lawmaker described as poor management.

Prominent journalist Yuriy Butusov wrote in December that 1,700 soldiers had fled the brigade without going into combat, and that 50 had escaped while training in France.

Ukraine’s state bureau of investigation said it had opened a criminal probe into abuse of power by a military official and desertion, without elaborating.

“The investigation is ongoing. It is too early to talk about any preliminary results,” spokesman Tetiana Sapian told AFP.

Lawmaker Mariana Bezugla said last month that the brigade had been effectively dismantled and redistributed across other units. She blamed what she called a lack of “coordination of command structures”.

“Even the French efforts to make the brigade specialised couldn’t save it from the poor military decisions of our generals, which ultimately dismantled the unit,” she said.

The Ukrainian army faces significant uncertainty in 2025.

Moscow is pouring resources into its nearly three-year invasion and uncertainty hangs over future US aid for Kyiv when President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month.

Russia advanced by almost 4,000sqkm in Ukraine last year, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War, as Kyiv’s army struggled with chronic manpower shortages and exhaustion.