Company commander of an AFU brigade trained in France agitated for desertion

The State Investigation Bureau (SIB) of Ukraine has detained the commander of the company of the 155th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) "Anna Kievska" on suspicion of desertion and incitement of subordinates to it. This was reported by the agency on January 8.

"Employees of the GBR in cooperation with the SBU detained and reported suspicion of the commander of one of the companies of the 155th separate mechanized brigade, who not only himself left the place of service unauthorized, but also incited his subordinates to it", - stated in the message of the GBR in its Telegram-channel.

It is specified that this is a senior lieutenant, he was detained in the Rivne region. At the end of 2024, he did not comply with the order to transfer his company to the operational subordination of another unit. Instead, the military officer ordered his subordinates to drop their weapons and flee from the place of service. He then left the position unauthorized.

The senior lieutenant was taken into custody but may be released on bail.

Earlier, on December 31, 2024, Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov (recognized as a foreign agent on the territory of the Russian Federation) reported that the 155th brigade of the AFU has seen an increase in desertions. At the same time, when the brigade was sent for training in France, the military had left the unit unauthorized 935 times.

Later, on January 1, Forbes magazine reported that the Anna Kievskaya brigade, which was recently formed and armed, began to disintegrate even before it arrived at the line of contact near Krasnoarmeysk (Ukrainian name - Pokrovsk).

The AFP news agency reported on January 6 that the French Defense Ministry confirms several dozen cases of Ukrainian soldiers of the 155th Brigade deserting during exercises in the European republic. At the same time, AFP specified that the military were allowed to leave the barracks and desertion is not criminalized in France. The next day, the commander of the AFU ground forces, Mikhail Drapatyi, confirmed the cases of unauthorized abandonment of units in the brigade.

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