Ukraine's Troubled 155th Brigade Now Revived, Fighting In Pokrovsk Counteroffensive

The 155th Brigade was sent to France to train. It was given brand new equipment by France and Germany. But it was made up of largely inexperienced troops and the training, borne of necessity, was too short. The unit's initial fighting on the front did not go well. 

So the Ukrainian command adapted, as it has done so well, so often, and assigned subordinate battalions and companies to more experienced units on the front. They learned. And the 155th is now one of the brigades in the thick of the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive retaking Russian positions around Pokrovsk. 

Decimus reports in Daily Kos:

The much maligned 155th have righted themselves and have become part of the solid line that is now holding back the Russians and their out of gas advance on Pokrovsk.  The unit was composed of men who had no previous military experience and that the training was too short to master the advanced armaments France and Germany supplied them. Predictably their baptism by fire did not go well. Subordinate units of the brigade were assigned to experienced units around Pokrovsk. The brigade - under new leaders - is now in the thick of the current counteroffensives to take back the villages in front of Pokrovsk which Russia paid so much in blood and materiel to take last year.

As recently as early January 2025, this particular unit of the Ukrainian army became the poster child of all that was supposedly wrong with Ukraine’s training and management of troops.  Everywhere was news of massive desertions, command leadership issues, cannibalization of the unit to fill in other units, etc, etc.  It was as if the 4,500 man unit had just dissolved into a huge pile of nothingness.  It was all very disheartening as this specific unit had been set up to be a symbol of the new way of training and kitting out modern Ukrainian fighting formations.  And France went all out to kit this unit with some of the best equipment they had.  Even French President Macron paid them a visit just before they left to go back to Ukraine.  What was often missing and unreported from all the bad news was the fact that part of the unit was also trained and kitted out in Poland.

In the maelstrom of bad news and finger pointing, Ukraine was forced to remove the unit leadership and to launch an investigation in to what happened to “Anne of Kyiv”.  Turns out that the unit was pretty much composed of men who had no previous military experience and that the training was way too short to master the most advanced armaments France and Germany supplied them.  It was just not enough time for these men to adequately take it all in and then head straight to the front.  It must have been hellaciously intimidating. Predictably their baptism by fire did not go well.  Our own fellow Kossack roxy47 did a dairy on this:

Maiden Combat of the 155th Mechanized Brigade Was Disastrous: A Look at Underlying Problems

www.dailykos.com/...

But Ukrainians being Ukrainians, they found ways to salvage the situation to maximum benefit until things got put back on track. Per David Axe of Forbes:

To salvage the 155th Mechanized Brigade, a unit that Ukraine, France and Poland spent months and millions of dollars training and equipping, Ukrainian leaders have begun assigning its fresh but inexperienced subordinate units to the weary but experienced brigades in the Pokrovsk sector.

www.forbes.com/...

And how things have changed in just a couple of months.  The much maligned 155th have righted themselves and have become part of the solid line that is now holding back the Russians and their now seemingly out of gas advance on Pokrovsk.  It is obvious that the Russians do not want a head on assault of Pokrovsk so they have been trying a strategy of creating a wide envelopment around Pokrovsk as well as cut off the logistics and supply roads coming into the fortress.

Well, try as the Russians might, it is “Anne of Kyiv” that is principally standing firmly athwart several of these critical roads and in the words of French General Robert Nivelle at Verdun … “ils ne passeront pas (they shall not pass) !!  

And not only that but “Anne of Kyiv” is in the thick of the current tactical counteroffensives to take back the villages in front of Pokrovsk which Russia paid so much in blood and materiel to take last year, especially the critical village of Schevchenko:

 The once much maligned 155th has become part of the bulwark defending the key logistical roads at the front … ensuring that the Russians do not get control of the Mezhova-Pokrovsk and Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka routes.