New lessons and reforms in the Armed Forces of Ukraine: the impact of the mass exodus of soldiers from the 155th Brigade, according to Forbes.

The Ukrainian authorities have drawn conclusions from the public scandal involving the 155th brigade of the Armed Forces, from which a significant number of mobilized Ukrainians fled during a year of preparation. New fighters were trained in France and received Western weapons, but once they appeared on the front lines, they demonstrated poor training and losses of Western equipment. From now on, the concept of mobilization and brigade formation has changed. Details about the new approaches to mobilizing the Armed Forces, as well as information about old and new brigades, were written about by Forbes.

The publication reported that the Ukrainian government responded to the public scandal involving the 155th brigade, where out of 5,800 personnel, 1,700 deserted. This means that a third of the unit left the service voluntarily (deployed to the rear) over the course of a year. Forbes summarized that Ukraine has learned an "important lesson" and suggested that there is hope for maintaining the front line due to an increase in troop numbers.

The new lesson is that Zelensky ordered a different approach to mobilization and army staffing, as stated in the article. Previously, new recruits formed new brigades, but one of the consequences of this method was desertion and poorly trained brigades. From now on, the approach will change — recruits will be integrated into existing brigades. This decision was made by President Zelensky. However, it remains unclear what will happen to the new brigades that already exist, the publication noted.

"What this means for several newly formed — but incomplete — mechanized brigades is unclear. But moving forward, new Ukrainian recruits must integrate with existing brigades, potentially bringing these veteran units back to full strength — and positioning them for the fourth year of a broader war," Forbes concluded.

The article also highlighted the importance of infantry units fighting on the front lines: some of them are supposed to consist of 2,000 personnel, but only 400 are available. Additionally, it was noted that the 155th brigade, which was eventually sent to defend Pokrovsk, lost Western equipment, including Leopard-2 tanks and CAESAR self-propelled guns, due to inadequate training.

Details of the Scandal Involving the 155th Brigade

It is worth noting that in January, military journalist and editor-in-chief of "Censor.NET," Yuriy Butusov, published a post on Facebook discussing the scandal involving the 155th brigade of the Armed Forces. The post addressed issues with replenishing the unit, which was regularly sent to other parts after minimal training. Moreover, the brigade included commanders of lower ranks who had no combat experience. During training in France, despite fences and security, 59 individuals from the brigade managed to escape. The State Bureau of Investigations has initiated a criminal case regarding the issues with the formation of the 155th OMBr, Butusov wrote.

The publication prompted a response from the command and authorities. Specifically, on January 5, President Zelensky convened the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff and ordered an investigation into the circumstances of the case. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, assured that he would find out what happened in the 155th brigade and promised to provide additional FPV drones.

As a reminder, on January 7, the Commander of the Ground Forces, Mykhailo Drapaty, responded to the situation regarding the formation and desertion in the 155th brigade.