Ukraine Forms New Mechanized Brigades Built Around Experienced Units

Despite concerns this year that Ukraine was running short of troops, the new conscription laws and efforts to recruit Ukrainians living abroad are proving even more successful than anticipated. 

Ukraine has already surprised the Russians - and its western partners - with the strength both of its Kursk offensive and of the defense of Pokrovsk, in both of which reserves have played a significant role. The Ukrainian plan going forward is to create two new series of mechanized (armored) brigades built around experienced formations but largely using new recruits armed and trained with western weapons. JL

Decimus reports in Daily Kos:

Ukraine has begun forming new mechanized brigades. These brigades are being built around experienced units in Ukraine and will be sent abroad for training at Western military facilities. The personnel for these brigades are to be recruited from Ukrainians living abroad. The new mechanized brigades have been assigned numbers in the 160-series. The first known unit is the 160th Mechanized Brigade, which is already forming. The 160-series brigades are expected to be equipped with gear provided by Western partners. These brigades are intended to participate in Ukraine’s 2025 offensive, while 150-series brigades will be tasked with relieving exhausted units currently deployed at the front.

The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has begun forming new mechanized brigades within the Ground Forces. These brigades are being built around experienced units in Ukraine and will later be sent abroad for training at Western military facilities. The personnel for these brigades are expected to be recruited from Ukrainians living abroad. As we reported on July 9, 2024, a Ukrainian Legion was formed in Poland, with its soldiers set to join the newly established brigades after completing their training.

The new mechanized brigades have been assigned numbers in the 160-series. The first known unit is the 160th Mechanized Brigade, which is already actively forming. Photos shared by the unit’s representatives, shown below, provide a glimpse into this ongoing process.

 

The 160-series brigades are expected to be equipped with gear provided by Western partners, depending on their training locations. If everything proceeds as planned, these brigades are intended to participate in Ukraine’s 2025 offensive, while the 150-series brigades will be tasked with relieving exhausted units currently deployed at the front.After many tries, Vladimir Putin has seemingly found the commander he’s been looking for to carry forward his murderous misadventure in Eastern Ukraine. By turns, he tried Aleksandr Dvornikov,  Gennady Zhidko, Sergey Surovikin and in between he tried Alexandre Lapin, Mikhail Teplinsky and off and on even the Chief of the general staff of the Russian military, Valery Gerasimov.  There have been other minor players who failed spectacularly in their bid for a breakthrough in Eastern Ukraine; capital example being Rustam Muradov who basically wrecked Russia’s 155th Naval Infantry Brigade in repeated ill-fated frontal assaults to take Vuhledar in Donetsk Oblast.

From somewhere in the mid-levels of the Russian general staff, Putin found his man …48 year old veteran of the battle for Mariupol and most recently the lead for the battle for Avdiivka, Andrey  Mordvichev.  For his exploits in taking Avdiivka at a huge cost in personnel and materiel, Mordvichev was nevertheless promoted by Putin to Colonel General, awarded the much coveted Hero of the Russian Federation gold medal and placed in charge of Russia’s forward movement[Group Center] to capture the rest of the Donbas currently not under Russian control.  

Mordvichev is described as aggressive and relentlessly task-oriented, no matter the cost.  Just what Putin ordered?  We all saw what happened in Avdiivka, the daily mind-boggling carnage and stupendous losses for Russia.  Mordvichev saw it all as just the cost of doing business. Forward at all cost.  No retreat.  Just like Putin, he views the invasion of Ukraine as a mere "stepping stone" to further conflict with Eastern Europe.  Music to Putin’s ears and heart. And he is being lionized among Russians. There’s full expectation in Russia that for Mordvichev, Pokrovsk is just another speed bump.  

Has Putin found his Zhukov?  Marshal Georgy Zhukov, a Soviet military commander in World War II, is synonymous with a ruthless approach prioritizing military objectives over human casualties. 

 

On the other end of the chess table sits a younger commander, who unlike his Russian counterpart is not as comfortable in the harsh glare of publicity, preferring a lower profile but is equally as aggressive and task-oriented. But with the human touch.  In a conversation with Ukrainska Pravda, one Marine Corps commander who served under him for six years, describes the general as "very responsible and human-centred". Brigadier General Andriy Hnatov, is a veteran of some of Ukraine’s most difficult and storied battles to date, Avdiivka, Bakhmut and Kherson. And if things follow their current trajectory, Pokrovsk may join that list.

Hnatov first came under the public gaze as a result of an unusual public outcry from elements of the Ukrainian forces, principally Azov, against General Yurii Sodol, the man tapped in April 2024 to replace General Syrskyi as commander of all Ukrainian Joint Armed Forces, including the very important Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group (OSG), which encompasses a vast strip of the war zone from Kharkiv Oblast to all of Donetsk Oblast.  Contrary to his many successes as a commanding officer, primarily during the very successful Kherson operation, Sodol was nevertheless widely vilified as exhibiting Zhukov-like tendencies in the misuse of his soldiers’ lives. And therefore not worthy of being in charge of all the joint forces of Ukraine.

In June 2024,President Zelenskyi replaced Sodol with Hnatov, placing him in the position second to General Syrskyi, the man on whose staff he, Hnatov, had served for many years.  It was Syrskyi who personally tapped Hnatov to lead the defense of Bakhmut.  Syrskyi himself on many occasions braved the “road of death” into Bakhmut to confer with Hnatov and other commanders facing off against the Russian juggernaut lead by Prigozhin’s Wagner PMC.  No one was under any illusion that Ukraine would prevail at Bakhmut.  A cursory observation of the situation saw Bakhmut as a holding action. Hnatov’s main task was to drain the Russians to the point where they could not immediately continue their march onto the key cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.  To that end he succeeded. And before Bakhmut, Hnatov was one of the leaders of the successful operation to liberate Kherson Oblast in 2022.

As hard, brutal and sanguinary as the defense of Bakhmut was, in many interviews, those who fought there as well as in other venues under his leadership came away with high regard for Hnatov:

"When I was in the brigade's only infantry unit, my brothers-in-arms and I were on the front lines, in trenches, but Andrii Viktorovych [Hnatov] still visited our positions almost daily. He knew all of the soldiers’ names. He assisted in resolving a variety of financial and domestic issues. A man of distinctive qualities. He also always accepted responsibility for everything and did not leave the warriors to their fate".

“Kostenko describes the newly appointed Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a sensible and modern general who has advanced through all levels of military command, from brigade chief of staff to regional defence leadership. Hnatov has extensive military experience. He makes a positive impression both as a commander and as a person. Strict and demanding, but at the same time prudent and decent".

And so it is that the train of events in this nearly three year old war has brought to the chess table, these two men, Andrey Mordvichev of Russia and Andriy Hnatov of Ukraine … different in temperament and leadership style, both hardened in the crucible of the second Russo-Ukrainian war.  The battle for Pokrovsk is the latest of the moves to be made on the board.  There will no doubt be others in the foreseeable future.

In the meantime, contrary to what many analysts, observers and pundits may have wondered, Ukraine has somehow come up with reserves to throw into the fight on the Pokrovsk line while still shoring up all along the 600 plus mile battle trace.  And there likely will be more new brigades coming on line.  News comes this week of Ukraine forming new mechanized brigades:

“These brigades are being built around experienced units in Ukraine and will later be sent abroad for training at Western military facilities. The personnel for these brigades are expected to be recruited from Ukrainians living abroad”

https://militaryland.net/news/new-mechanized-brigades-begin-the-process-of-formation/