"Meat squad or incompetent leader? Where are the guys?!" What's wrong with the newly formed teams?

“157th OMBr. Meat Brigade or Inept Commander? Where are the guys?”

“My brother is missing. The command is hiding the truth and not providing any information.”

“157th Brigade! Every day there are numerous missing persons! What is happening? How do we stop the commanders who irresponsibly destroy personnel?” — the messages from the search group for the missing are filled with such concerns.

Management chaos. Mass SOCH. Untrained recruits at ground zero. Destruction of up to 40% of personnel. Hromadske decided to investigate whether what we have heard is true — are they “plugging the gaps” with mobilized soldiers, and how justified are the formations of new brigades?

“They sent in newcomers. They all got wiped out.”

“I was supposed to train on the ATGM. The BOVP trained. We were waiting to be sent to our specialty. But instead, we were sent to Zarya (Pokrovsk direction), and on the first day many guys — zeroed out. Some refused immediately. They turned in their weapons and said, ‘We’re not going anywhere,’ ” says Oleg, a soldier from the 157th Brigade, mobilized in July.

Many went to SOCH.

“A lot are leaving, including officers. They just abandoned us. In the evening, they sent a message in WhatsApp: ‘We’re gone.’ One group was taken to the trenches, looked at it, got into a vehicle, and left. Seven people right away,” ” Oleg recounts.

The situation, he says, is reminiscent of the infamous 155th Brigade. Except that the 157th had no “chance to escape to France.”

Out loud, even under anonymity, the number of casualties and SOCH in the brigade is not discussed. However, according to interlocutors, the number of recent cases may reach at least a third, which means several hundred or over a thousand soldiers.

According to another serviceman, there is no chance for cohesion in the new brigade because it is being dismantled for parts.

“That is, they came from other brigades and took our already formed battalions completely into their ranks. So, we simply lost two battalions to zero. Although we only went into combat two months ago,” he laments.

“48 newcomers were taken by the 55th, and they were wiped out. They said, ‘Oh, they sent in newcomers.’ They all got wiped out. And it’s clear that no one will come to retrieve them because the Russians are already there.”Oleg, a soldier from the 157th OMBr

“We weren’t given time for training.”

The 157th Separate Mechanized Brigade began forming in spring 2024. It effectively engaged in combat missions from November (and with some units since September). Immediately — in one of the hottest directions.

“Oh yes, I know what you’re talking about,” sighs the brigade’s press officer over the phone as soon as he hears about the flood of complaints from relatives.

“Unfortunately, it’s not a secret to me. But there’s no way to influence it. To ensure communication and feedback from the brigade, civil-military cooperation, a hotline, and a patronage service that cares for the families of the deceased and missing must function. All of this exists in brigades that have been established for a long time. Ours just hasn’t started yet. In new brigades, this is always accompanied by chaos,” admits Marina.

For all other questions, she refers to the commander. Colonel Petr Chub acknowledges the problems. However, he says he has no right not to follow orders.

“We had specific schedules, deadlines, individual and collective training, and almost all personnel of the unit underwent individual training (BOVP — ed.). But as for collective training — unfortunately, we weren’t given time for that. And this desire is not mine as a commander or that of my subordinates; it’s the execution of directives and orders that we follow,” the commander responds.

“You understand, when an order comes from the headquarters to ‘move forward’ — whether you had time for cohesion or not, no one cares, frankly speaking,” adds an officer from the brigade’s headquarters under anonymity.

The commander acknowledges the high number of SOCH. But he highlights two factors: low motivation among the mobilized and the fragmentation of the brigade.

“The SOCH was caused by the fact that personnel were transferred to other military units four times.”Petr Chub, Colonel, commander of the 157th OMBr

“During the formation of the military unit, orders were received from higher headquarters to transfer personnel to units of the Airborne Assault Forces, Marine Corps, etc. And the personnel had already formed small collectives, groups where people became friends… And then they come and take them to a completely different unit. When it became clear that it was the Airborne Assault Forces, for example, we recently saw an increase in SOCH.”

At the same time, the commander called the information about losses of up to 40% untrue.

“How the hell are they supposed to fight?”

At the personnel reception point of the brigade — “it’s a nightmare,” shares our interlocutor, picking up the topic of the quality of recruits.

“Those who could be motivated and taught something are okay. Most people were brought in flip-flops, just as they dashed out to the store. Some collapse with epilepsy. Some are obviously under something. Please tell me, is this a soldier? And tomorrow he’ll be issued a rifle. Well, we turned such people back, but some were accepted.”Officer from the headquarters of the 157th OMBr

“All of this was dumped on the commander, the chief of staff, and the management sector of the brigade. They have to solve this. But how the hell are they supposed to do that? Will they give birth to good soldiers and draft them into the army?” asks the officer.

One of the key problems that emerged during conversations with the military is that the newly formed brigade is currently made up entirely of mobilized personnel and lacks a “combat skeleton.”

“It’s more effective to integrate into such a skeleton. For example, 30 experienced guys from a company can integrate new people who already know how to handle things and explain something. Here, everyone is new. They look at each other — thump-thump, thump-thump. They talked to each other — ‘That’s it, we’re done.’ They turned around and left. And what can you tell them, what can you do?”

“This is a cry from the soul. You say, we need at least a company commander with combat experience. But the company commander was taken two days ago, the same one who sat at home and didn’t bother anyone. There was a military department, he came in — and here’s your company. How the hell are they supposed to fight?”Officer from the headquarters of the 157th OMBr

In response to a request from hromadske, the General Staff stated that the Military Law Enforcement Service systematically analyzes the number of SOCH in various units, particularly in newly formed brigades. Based on the results, “urgent measures” are taken — in particular, working groups are sent for response and checks.

At the same time, the transfer of personnel between units was explained by the General Staff as a “crisis situation threatening national security.”

“Reinforcement of military units can be carried out by transferring personnel between military units, including without the consent of the servicemen,” the General Staff noted.

“Why the hell create new brigades?” or “Is there no other way?”

“One question comes to mind. When there are depleted brigades that have been fighting for a long time and have a command that at least knows something, why not reinforce the brigades that have been established for a long time? Why the hell create new ones out of nowhere?” — cannot contain his emotions, says a hromadske interlocutor from the 157th OMBr.

Regarding the logic of creating new brigades instead of reinforcing existing ones, the