Butusov on situation in 155th Brigade: Supreme Commander-in-Chief office is not fulfilling its duties, such mistakes cost us dearly
The editor-in-chief of Censor.NET, Yurii Butusov, said that the formation of new brigades without their support is a gross mistake that is costly for the country.
He said this on the air of Radio NV, Censor.NET reports.
Butusov called it a good approach to form a new complete brigade, train it in full force in France, equip and arm it with the latest weapons, such as Caesar guns. After Zelenskyy and Macron's statements, he began to follow this project.
"The scandal that prompted me to write arose around 4-5 December (2024). I was in Pokrovsk. The situation there is very difficult. I talked to some military leaders. And they told me: ‘Now there will be a reserve, a powerful reinforcement’. I saw units of the 155th Brigade arriving in the area. It immediately became clear that this was, unfortunately, the exact opposite of those advertising promises. ...
It was done in an illiterate, hasty manner. It didn't look like it was a move and deployment of a brigade in such an important area as Pokrovsk, that it was done by some military professionals. It seemed like our leaders of the General Staff, the Armed Forces, and the OSGT "Khortytsia" were playing some kind of childish game with real people at war," he stressed.
When the brigade began to deploy, Butusov was "completely shocked to see that it had absolutely no drones or electronic warfare equipment".
"I thought it couldn't be possible that a brigade formed by two presidents was going into battle without a single drone or electronic warfare equipment. It turned out to be true," the journalist said.
"That's why I raised this issue, because they are forming troops without supplies, for which there are no resources, and those troops that already have everything are not sent there. It looks like either idiocy or sabotage. We have no strategic planning at all. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief's office is not fulfilling its duties. These are grossly erroneous decisions that are costing us a lot," Butusov added.
Commenting on the plan to form 14 brigades, he said that these 14 brigades are "a complete organisational chaos".
Situation in the 155 brigade
As a reminder, on 1 January 2025, Censor.NET editor-in-chief Yurii Butusov outlined a number of facts about the circumstances of the formation and functioning of the 155th mechanised brigade "Anne of Kyiv", which entered the battle near Pokrovsk and suffered significant losses there.
According to him, the 155th Brigade faced a number of problems: 1,700 soldiers left the brigade without permission before the first battle, the brigade commander was fired immediately after the battle, and one of the brigade's leaders died of a heart attack.
Butusov conducted a lengthy investigation to find out what exactly led to the significant losses of the brigade's personnel and equipment and the massive AWOL.
In October, the 155th Brigade left for training in France. 1924 servicemen were sent there, of whom only 51 had more than a year of military service, 459 had up to a year of experience, and the majority, 1414, had just enlisted and served for less than 2 months, about 150 were sent to France even without undergoing the Basic Military Training Programme. About 50 military brigades fled to France.
The editor-in-chief of Censor.NET also reports that the brigade was not provided with the necessary weapons. In particular, the brigade has not received any drones from the state to carry out combat missions. Also, according to Butusov, there were no electronic warfare devices. The brigade was supplied by volunteers.
In addition, all the 120 mm mortar shells produced by the Ministry of Strategic Industries that were issued to the brigade were defective.
On 2 January, it became known that the SBI had launched an investigation into the massive AWOL in the 155th "Anne of Kyiv" Brigade following media reports. In turn, the French Ministry of Defence did not comment on the information that the 155th Anne of Kyiv Brigade, trained by the French armed forces, was the subject of an investigation in Ukraine.
Also, in early January, it became known about the results of a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff regarding the 155th SMB "Anne of Kyiv".
On 5 January, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi promised to increase the capabilities of the 155th Brigade and acknowledged that there were problems that needed to be addressed.
