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The ex-commander of the 155th Mechanized Brigade has been arrested and bail has been set at $2.1 million.
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Colonel Dmytro Ryumshin led the “Anne of Kiev” brigade until he abruptly resigned in December.
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The unit was hyped for being trained by France, but faced reports of mass desertions before its deployment.
A court in Kiev has set bail for Colonel Dmytro Ryumshin, the recently replaced commander of Ukraine's 155th Mechanized Brigade, at $2.1 million.
His lawyer, Bohdan Zabara, told Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne about the court's decision on Wednesday.
It comes as Ukraine investigates a series of scandals that have marred the combat debut of the 155th – a new brigade partly trained in France and equipped with modern French weapons.
Nicknamed “Anne of Kiev” after an 11th-century Kiev princess turned French queen, it was touted as a way for Europe to directly boost Ukraine's manpower-starved resources. But the brigade's reputation at home deteriorated when local journalists reported that it was continually suffering from mass desertions and was being broken up to reinforce other units.
One reporter, Yuriy Butusov, estimated that 1,700 men were missing before the 155th was sent into battle, including about 50 men who had deserted to France.
Ryumshin oversaw the 155th as it prepared to deploy to the front lines, but suddenly announced his resignation in early December.
Federal investigators arrested him Monday and accused him of “systematically covering up” desertions among his troops. The State Bureau of Investigation said Ryumshin received both oral and written reports on disciplinary issues but did not inform higher authorities or act on this information.
“The commander's actions prevented law enforcement officials from initiating the legal process to search and return service members to their military units and reserve battalions, or in some cases, ensure that they serve their sentences for the crimes committed they committed,” the spokesperson said. researchers said.
Ryumshin's lawyer, Zabara, told Suspilne that the colonel would contest the bail amount set by authorities in Kiev. If he fails to post bail, he will have to remain in custody for 60 days before his hearing takes place behind closed doors.
Zabara did not respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular business hours.
Meanwhile, the 155th's social media accounts show its men now fighting around Pokrovsk, where Russia is slowly but relentlessly pushing to capture the key strategic city.
The brigade is equipped with 18 AMX 10 armored vehicles, 18 truck-mounted Caesar howitzers and 128 armored troop carriers. It enjoyed relatively high profile during training in France, with French President Emmanuel Macron meeting his troops during a visit in October.
And it seems that Europe is not done with these joint training programs yet. The European Union has allocated $425 million to train more Ukrainian soldiers until the end of 2026, including 15,000 in winter 2025.
But at home, the 155th's reputation is still shaky. Some fighters and analysts in Ukraine believe it was a mistake for Kiev to create brand new brigades like the 155th instead of supplementing older, more experienced units already fighting.
Serhii Sternenko, a well-known Ukrainian lawyer provides crowdfunded drones to military unitssaid his organization assisted the 155th because the brigade did not have officially supplied drones and jammers.
'Why create a new brigade when the existing brigades are seriously understaffed, only to divide them later and transfer personnel to the old brigades? What's the point?' He wrote in early January on his Telegram channel.
As the 155th prepared to enter battle, its men were also often redeployed by other brigades in desperate need, forcing the French-trained force to haphazardly redeploy its forces to positions for which they had not trained.
Sergey Filimonov, commander of Ukraine's 108th battalion, wrote on January 10 that he was aware of “ten such brigades operating under these conditions.”
He added that Western training methods, even when provided by NATO forces, “often do not reflect the realities of modern warfare” in Ukraine.
“The reality of modern warfare shows that foreign training, unless adapted to Ukrainian conditions and integrated with unit practices, is not only ineffective but also dangerous,” he wrote in an op-ed published by Ukrainska Pravda.
Ukraine's leaders appear to be listening. Butusov, the journalist who broke the news of desertions in the 155th, reported on January 12 that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had ordered all newly mobilized troops to be sent to existing brigades rather than being assigned to newly formed units.
The Ukrainian and French defense ministries did not respond to requests for comment sent by BI outside regular business hours.
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