Why did Ukraine’s new 155th Mechanized Brigade completely disintegrate before reaching the front lines? Were there flaws in the French and Polish training, the brigade’s leadership, or poor morale?

The problem with this brigade was the same as with all newly established Ukrainian army brigades.

The entire concept of creating new brigades (instead of strengthening the already existing ones) is, to put it mildly, not a good idea.

In the Western media, it was reported that this brigade was disbanded primarily due to high desertion rates, but this is not accurate.

In reality, 50 of its 6,000 soldiers disappeared during training in France. While regrettable, this is a relatively small number and had no significant impact on the brigade’s performance.

Most of the other soldiers who left the brigade joined already established and experienced units, which is understandable.

The 155th Brigade had very few combat-experienced veterans in its ranks—less than 5%. Deploying such a unit into combat, even when equipped with modern Western weapons, is utterly irresponsible.

When this brigade was sent to the battlefield, it was deployed in the Pokrovsk direction, where the heaviest fighting is taking place. It would have been far more prudent to first assign them to a quieter sector to acclimate the soldiers to being under fire. This was a grave mistake.

Furthermore, the unit arrived in Pokrovsk without drones or electronic warfare equipment (e.g., jammers), rendering them practically incapable of operating. This goes beyond a simple mistake, it amounts to criminal negligence. Whoever was responsible for this must be held accountable.

Unfortunately, what happened with the 155th Brigade is not an isolated incident. The entire strategy of forming new battalions and brigades while existing units remain severely understrength is deeply flawed.

What the generals of the Armed Forces did may look good on paper (“Look, we now have 10% more brigades!”), but in reality, leaving established units depleted and sending inexperienced troops into combat is a recipe for disaster.

One can only hope that the political-military leadership will wake up and finally listens to those who already warned of these developments many months ago.

It is difficult to see how the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyy, can remain in his position. He should be fired.