Each the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, have a robust penchant for PR stunts that always get in the way in which of the very aims they set for themselves.
Determined for some relevance within the battle, since each his home and overseas agendas had been an entire shitshow, Macron determined to bankroll the entire new a hundred and fifty fifth mechanized brigade, projected to turn out to be the ‘elite’.
France allotted virtually 1 billion euros for its NATO-grade coaching and prime Western tools.
However as quickly because the brigade discovered itself on the entrance, a mass exodus started with greater than 1,700 folks fleeing earlier than firing a single shot, largely from the infantry and tank battalions.
Even in the course of the coaching in France, greater than 50 members of the brigade disappeared.
The Telegraph reported:
“By the point it entered battle for the primary time, not less than 1,700 of its troops went absent with out depart at quite a few factors. Some 500 troopers had been nonetheless lacking, it was reported as lately as November.”
The actual exodus got here again in Ukraine, because the brigade was being deployed to Pokrovsk, the important thing logistics hub within the protection of Donetsk area.
Because the brigade entered the battle, it suffered heavy losses, together with a few of its tanks and armored autos.
“It prompted the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigations to research the seemingly shambolic formation of the a hundred and fifty fifth. The brigade, also called Anne of Kyiv, was meant to have greater than 5,800 troops and be geared up with among the greatest tools accessible, together with Leopard tanks and French Caesar 155mm howitzers.”
Zelensky and Macron introduced the $900 million mission to nice fanfare at an occasion commemorating the eightieth anniversary of the D-Day touchdown, in June of final 12 months.
“Yuriy Butusov, a Ukrainian battle correspondent, wrote: ‘That is certainly against the law, however the crime of not troopers and officers – however the crime of the leaders of the supreme commander-in-chief, the Ministry of Protection and the final employees, who proceed to waste their lives and public funds on new initiatives, as a substitute of strengthening skilled and combat-capable brigades’.”
When the a hundred and fifty fifth was deployed to Pokrovsk, it didn’t even have any drones or digital warfare jammers by the state.
“Bohdan Krotevych, the chief of employees of Ukraine’s Azov Brigade, mentioned: ‘Can or not it’s idiocy to create new brigades and equip them with such tools, having incomplete current ones?’
Mr. Butusov added: ‘The brigade’s servicemen turned hostages of Zelensky’s PR mission, which the authorities made no effort to truly implement competently’.”
The brigade has now been disbanded, with its troops assigned to actual battle-hardened brigades which might be already defending Pokrovsk.
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