The French training brigade in Ukraine was originally a flagship programme. His former commander is now free on $2.1 million bail.

• The former commander of the 155th Mechanized Brigade has been arrested and his bail is set at $2.1 million.

• Colonel Dmytro Ryumshin led the “Kiev Anne” brigade until his sudden resignation in December.

• The unit was billed as being trained in France but faced reports of mass desertions before deployment.

A Kiev court has set bail at $2.1 million for Colonel Dmytro Ryumshin, the recently replaced commander of Ukraine’s 155th Mechanized Brigade.

His lawyer Bohdan Zabara disclosed the court’s ruling to Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is investigating a series of scandals that affected the debut of the 155th Brigade.

Known as “Anne of Kiev,” after an 11th-century Kiev princess who became queen of France, it was touted as a way for Europe to directly empower Ukraine’s hungry labor force. But the brigade’s reputation at home soured as local journalists reported that it continued to suffer mass desertions and was being broken up to reinforce other units.

One journalist, Yuriy Butusov, estimated that 1,700 soldiers of the 155th Regiment had gone AWOL before the regiment was sent to the battlefield, including about 50 who deserted in France.

Lyumshin was responsible for overseeing the 155th Infantry Division in preparation for deployment to the front lines, but suddenly announced his resignation in early December.

Federal investigators arrested him on Monday, accusing him of “systematically concealing” troop desertions. The National Bureau of Investigation said Longshen received oral and written reports on disciplinary matters but neither reported them to higher authorities nor acted on the information.

“As a result of the commander’s actions, law enforcement officials were unable to initiate legal proceedings to capture and return service members to their military units and reserve camps or, in some cases, ensure that they served sentences for the crimes they committed,” investigators said.

Ryumshin’s lawyer Zabala told Suspilne that the colonel will challenge the bail amount set by Kiev authorities. If he fails to get bail, he must remain in custody for 60 days before a closed-door hearing.

Zabala did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment outside regular business hours.

Meanwhile, the social media account of the 155th Infantry Regiment showed that its personnel are currently fighting around Pokrovsk, where Russia has been advancing slowly and relentlessly to capture the strategically important city.

The brigade is equipped with 18 AMX 10 armored vehicles, 18 vehicle-mounted Kaiser howitzers, and 128 armored personnel carriers. It enjoys high profile during training in France, where French President Emmanuel Macron met with its troops during a visit in October.

Europe’s joint training program doesn’t seem to be over yet. The EU has allocated $425 million to train more Ukrainian soldiers by the end of 2026, including 15,000 soldiers in the winter of 2025.

But at home, the 155th’s reputation remained shaky. Some fighters and analysts in Ukraine believe Kiev made a mistake by forming an entirely new brigade like the 155th instead of supplementing older, more experienced units already fighting.

Serhii Sternenko, famous Ukrainian lawyer Crowdfunded drones for military unitssaid his organization is assisting the 155th Brigade because the brigade lacks officially provided drones and jammers.

“Why create a new brigade when the existing brigade is severely undermanned and then divide it up and transfer personnel to the old brigade? What’s the point of that?” he wrote on his Telegram channel in early January.

When the 155th was ready to go into battle, its personnel were often drawn away from other brigades in urgent need, allowing the French-trained unit to haphazardly reallocate its troops to positions in which they had not trained.

Sergey Filimonov, commander of the Ukrainian 108th Battalion, wrote on January 10 that he knew of about “10 such brigades operating in such conditions.”

He added that Western training methods, although provided by NATO forces, “often fail to meet the realities of modern warfare” in Ukraine.

“The reality of modern warfare shows that foreign training is not only ineffective but also dangerous unless it is adapted to Ukrainian conditions and integrated with troop practice,” he wrote in an opinion piece published in the Ukrainian newspaper Pravda.

Ukraine’s leaders appear to be listening. Journalist Butusov, who broke the news about Deserter No. 155, reported on January 12 that Ukrainian President Zelensky had ordered that all newly mobilized troops be sent to existing brigades rather than assigned to newly formed units.

The Ukrainian and French defense ministries did not respond to BI’s requests for comment outside normal business hours.

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