Each the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, have a powerful penchant for PR stunts that usually get in the best way of the very aims they set for themselves.
Determined for some relevance within the conflict, since each his home and overseas agendas have been a whole 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 nearly 1 billion euros for its NATO-grade coaching and prime Western gear.
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, principally from the infantry and tank battalions.
Even throughout 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, no less than 1,700 of its troops went absent with out depart at quite a few factors. Some 500 troopers have been nonetheless lacking, it was reported as just lately as November.”
The true 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 automobiles.
“It prompted the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigations to analyze the seemingly shambolic formation of the a hundred and fifty fifth. The brigade, also referred to as Anne of Kyiv, was meant to have greater than 5,800 troops and be outfitted with a few of the finest gear out there, together with Leopard tanks and French Caesar 155mm howitzers.”
Zelensky and Macron introduced the $900 million challenge 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 conflict 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 tasks, 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 gear, having incomplete current ones?’
Mr. Butusov added: ‘The brigade’s servicemen turned hostages of Zelensky’s PR challenge, 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 are already defending Pokrovsk.
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