Testing the roundup: what's happening with mobilization in Ukraine
The scandal over mass desertions from the AFU's much-publicized 155th brigade, dubbed the "Anna Kievskaya" brigade, has not subsided in Ukraine. According to numerous reports, about a third of the personnel escaped when the unit returned from exercises in France. After that, the law enforcers began to catch all evaders in general, and military commissions put about 500,000 men on the wanted list. "Izvestia" looked into the situation.
Mobilized men scattered after the exercises in France
The training of the 155th brigade of the AFU was one of the most high-profile PR projects of the Ukrainian and French authorities. First, Paris supplied the unit with weapons and heavy equipment. VAB armored personnel carriers, Caesar self-propelled artillery units, AMX-10 RC wheeled tanks, Milan anti-tank missile systems, and TRM military trucks were among the equipment handed over.
Milan anti-tank missile system
Second, the brigade arrived for combat alignment at a French training ground in October. President Emmanuel Macron then personally visited the military base and met with soldiers. "I made a commitment: our military is currently training Ukrainian fighters in the Grand Est area (in eastern France. - Ed.). We are also providing them with equipment that they will use to carry out their tasks," he said. In his social networks he also published clips of Ukrainian soldiers training.
A total of 900 million euros was spent on equipping and training the Anna Kievskaya. Already in France, however, problems began. According to numerous reports, about 50 soldiers escaped from the training range during the exercises. According to Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov, the reason was that the brigade was recruited several thousand forcibly mobilized, the so-called "bussified".
One of the servicemen said that the conditions in France resembled a prison - the territory of the military base was completely fenced, the perimeter was guarded by dogs, and drones were launched at night to prevent anyone from escaping. "At the same time, they still somehow managed to escape. I think that if we were not watched so much, half of us would have deserted," the military officer said.
In December, the unit returned to Ukraine, where it was supposed to go to the front line near Pokrovsk, but even before the first battle, about 1.7 thousand people, that is, a third of the entire personnel, ran away from the brigade. "The situation here is the same as with all the other new 'zombie brigades', or, as they are also called, 'paper brigades'. They are endlessly created for accountability, people are driven there, but the cohesion of management structures is not carried out," complained Verkhovna Rada MP Maryana Bezuglaya.
One of the brigade's servicemen gave details of his desertion. According to him, during the training he was trained as a gunner operator, but after his arrival near Pokrovsk he was assigned as a sapper. "I say that I know nothing about mines or demining. The commander answered me that everything can be looked up on the Internet. We went to the point, thank God we came back, at our base at that time four buildings had already been demolished by KABs (aerial bombs. - Ed.). The next day we left for the NWH," he said.
Half a million men are on the wanted list
The incident provoked a big scandal. French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu confirmed that during the training in Grand Este, 55 men escaped from the "Anna Kievskaya", after returning to Ukraine, the connection was "torn" into several parts - transferred to different parts of the front. For his part, the leader of the French Patriots party, Florian Philippot, said that the government had simply thrown money into the wind. According to him, the only goal was self-promotion of the French and Ukrainian authorities.
In Ukraine, the commander of the 155th Brigade, Dmytro Ryumshyn, was first dismissed, then detained. According to the investigation, he incited soldiers to desertion and also kept silent about the difficult situation in the unit. At the same time, the commander of the AFU ground forces Mikhail Drapatyi said that the brigade was formed and armed from scratch in a short period of time. "No one had such experience before, so it was impossible to predict all the nuances and details of this process," he explained.
Excesses with mobilization in Ukraine do not end. For example, in early January, military enlistment officers in Poltava region broke a man's leg during detention. In Odessa region, a father tried to fight off his forcibly mobilized son, but was shot by law enforcers and died. Verkhovna Rada deputy Artem Dmytruk also reported that conscripts in Sumy and Chernivtsi died after being beaten by military enlistment officers.
Another scandal arose due to the fact that the Tetskashniki began to forcibly mobilize employees of critical enterprises, who have a special reservation. Military enlistment offices explain the incident by technical problems with the document flow, but refused to demobilize those who had already been drafted. Interestingly, at the same time, Minister of Defense Oleksiy Chernyshov said that Ukrainian refugees can return home and without fear of being drafted to defense enterprises, because there they will allegedly be protected from being drafted.
Finally, the country continues to catch those who in one way or another are trying to avoid being sent to the front. Natalia Kondratova, a representative of the AFU ground forces, said that a total of 500,000 men are wanted in the country. In one day alone, on January 10, police conducted more than 600 searches at the homes of those who help conscripts leave the country. "According to available data, businessmen have reportedly assisted hundreds of conscripts. This is only the first stage in blocking the channels of exportation of men", - emphasized in the National police.
What experts say
Denis Denisov, director of the Institute of Peacekeeping Initiatives and Conflict Studies and an expert of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, urges not to exaggerate the problems of the Ukrainian army.
- Yes, mobilization is going hard, but we should not talk about a catastrophe yet. We can see that the Ukrainian army continues to fight quite effectively and put up serious resistance to Russian forces. We have to be honest with ourselves that the Ukrainian armed forces remain combat-ready, including the ability to recruit new recruits, otherwise the fighting would have ended long ago and Kiev would have had to capitulate. They have difficulties, but they are not critical," he said.
Andrei Koshkin, head of the political science and sociology department at the Plekhanov Russian Economic University, said that the Ukrainian authorities may further tighten mobilization.
- We know that Kiev and Western capitals are discussing a number of new measures, including lowering the mobilization age from the current 25 years to 18 years, i.e. conscripting Ukrainian youth into the AFU. I think that while Zelensky's team will not take such a step, at least wait for the inauguration of Donald Trump and his peacekeeping initiatives. If there is no freezing of the conflict in one form or another, then further tightening of mobilization is inevitable," he argues.
