Court considers extending arrest for ex-commander of 155th Brigade Riumshyn for another 6 months - media (updated)
The Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv has begun considering a motion to extend the term of detention of Dmytro Riumshyn, the former commander of the 155th "Anne of Kyiv" Brigade.
This was reported by Suspilne, Censor.NET informs.
He is suspected of massive cases of AWOL among the unit's soldiers and concealing such facts.
As noted, the judge made the relevant decision by granting the prosecutor's request for a confidential consideration of the issue of extending the preventive measure for another six months.
The suspect's defence, represented by lawyer Andrii Yosypov, objected to the closed session, but the court dismissed the motion. Earlier, the court also refused to withdraw the prosecutor.
Updated
"On Tuesday, 15 April, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv ruled to extend the pre-trial investigation for 6 months in the case of the former commander of the 155th "Anne Kyiv" Brigade, Dmytro Riumshyn, who is suspected of mass AWOL of the brigade's soldiers and of concealing such cases," the newspaper writes.
Situation in the 155th 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 among 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 BGMT. About 50 military from brigade fled to France.
The editor-in-chief of Censor.NET also reports that the brigade has not been provided with the necessary weapons. In particular, the brigade did not receive any drones from the state to perform combat missions. Also, according to Butusov, there were no electronic warfare systems. 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 faulty.
On 2 January, it became known that the State Bureau of Investigation had launched an investigation into mass 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, the results of a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff regarding the 155th Brigade "Anne of Kyiv" were announced.
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.
Censor.NET editor-in-chief Yurii Butusov said that the formation of new brigades without their support is a gross mistake that is costly for the country.
On 20 January 2025, the SSU detained the former commander of the 155th Brigade, Riumshyn.
On January 22, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv imposed a pre-trial restraint in the form of bail in the amount of UAH 90 million.
On 6 February, the Kyiv Court of Appeal left Riumshyn in custody.. The court refused to release him on bail, instead reducing his bail from UAH 90 million to UAH 50 million.
