A Ukrainian journalist reported an increase in desertions from an AFU brigade

The number of cases of desertions from the 155th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) "Anna Kievska", which was formed and trained in France, is increasing. This was reported by Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov (recognized as a foreign agent on the territory of the Russian Federation) on December 31.

"The formation of the 155th brigade from the first days was a solid organizational chaos literally in all components, and the service required great efforts for those who tried to serve honestly, and led to heavy losses due to the unauthorized abandonment of the unit from the very beginning of the formation," he noted on his page in the social network Facebook (owned by the recognized extremist company Meta, its activities are banned in Russia).

Butusov added that already at the time of sending the brigade for training in France, 935 cases of unauthorized abandonment of the unit had been identified.

According to him, the brigade was sent not trained servicemen, but "a crowd of people who had just put on military uniforms." The journalist reproached the Ukrainian authorities for paying attention to the brigade's real combat capability only after it had taken part in combat operations.

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Earlier, on December 31, Welt reported that the AFU fighters were losing motivation and desertion in their ranks was on the rise. The piece noted that with such trends, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (term of office expired on May 20) will be forced to abandon the territories for a ceasefire.

Before that, on December 24, the Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Gorbenko said about the desertion of part of the mobilized in the AFU during training abroad. According to Gorbenko, the highest percentage of deserters is recorded among those mobilized to new brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces.

On 17 December, the Ukrainian news and analysis website Wiadomości reported that the number of deserters in some AFU units exceeded the number of wounded and killed. In a conversation with the publication, one of the AFU commanders described the situation as critical due to the shortage of men.

The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken against the backdrop of the worsening situation in the region.