Law enforcement officers detained the commander of one of the companies of the 155th mechanized brigade, who not only left the unit without permission (AWOL), but also incited his fighters to do so. He was informed of the suspicion.
This is reported by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).
The investigation established that at the end of 2024, the person involved in the case did not carry out the order and did not transfer the company he led to the subordination of another unit. Instead, he ordered his soldiers to flee without weapons and himself voluntarily left the service.
Today, January 8, the company commander was detained in the Rivne region and taken to Kyiv, where he was reported on suspicion of unauthorized abandonment of the place of duty and refusal to carry out an order (Part 4 of Article 402, Part 5 of Article 407 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The suspect has already been given a preventive measure — he will be held in custody, but he can post bail.
What preceded
On December 31, journalist Yuriy Butusov stated that 1 700 soldiers from the 155th separate mechanized brigade named after Anna Kyivska had voluntarily left the service before “the brigade fired the first shot”.
The 155th brigade began to be formed in March 2024. Butusov listed the number of personnel by the time they went to the front for each month and the number of fighters who went AWOL that month (in brackets):
- March 46 (3);
- April 123 (6);
- May 217 (31);
- June 1978 (185);
- July 3 882 (310);
- August 2 748 (217);
- September 3 253 (187);
- October 3 211 (339);
- November 5 832 (448).
Butusov also notes that in October, when the brigade went to France for training, another 50 soldiers deserted. According to him, 1 924 soldiers were sent to France, of whom only 51 had more than a year of military service experience, and 459 had less than a year. And the majority, 1 414, were soldiers who had just been enlisted, having fought for two months by that time.
“Especially problematic,” Butusov claims, were about 150 people who were recruited without selection and sent to France without a basic military training.
Butusov stated that the State Bureau of Investigation opened a criminal case due to the incident in France.
In a comment to Ukrainska Pravda, the SBI communications advisor Tetyana Sapyan said that SBI is indeed investigating these facts and has opened criminal proceedings for desertion and abuse of power or authority by a military official.
According to her, the investigation is ongoing and it is still too early to talk about any preliminary results.
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