The Ukrainian Brigade is Experiencing Disintegration During Its Deployment to Pokrovsk
The Ukrainian Brigade is Experiencing Disintegration During Its Deployment to Pokrovsk
For the second time in a month, a freshly assembled Ukrainian military unit is cracking under pressure as it heads to the front lines in one of Russia's most pressing battlefronts in Ukraine's years-long conflict.
A family member of a trooper in the 157th Mechanized Brigade spoke candidly to Hromadske, sharing their concerns. "This new unit hasn't undergone the necessary combat training," they stated, "but it was sent straight into the hottest areas," including the siege-stricken city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.
Capturing Pokrovsk is a top priority for Russia, making its defense a top priority for Ukraine. With its strategic importance, it's alarming to many that the Ukrainian army is continuing to reinforce the city with dysfunctional units, including the 155th and 157th Mechanized Brigades.
Both units were faltering well before they even set foot in Pokrovsk.
Militaryland, a collective tracking Ukrainian military structure, noted, "The situation in the 157th Mechanized Brigade echoes those of other brigades in the 150th series." Soldiers were taken away during formation, units were hastily deployed without proper training, and the result was heavy casualties.
Formed in 2023 or early 2024, the 150-series brigades, including the 151st, 153rd, 154th, 155th, 156th, 158th, and 159th Mechanized Brigades, are big but fragile. With inexperienced leaders, scarce modern armored vehicles, and shaky morale, these units often see high desertion rates.
The problem lies in the lack of a core of experienced troops to lead the new recruits. Ideally, as one concerned officer told Hromadske, "new people join the 30 experienced guys from the company who already know how to give them advice and explain something." In the 157th Mechanized Brigade, as one might guess, "everyone is new."
It's no surprise, then, that the 157th Mechanized Brigade was crumbling as it arrived in Pokrovsk. Reports indicate that troopers from the brigade took one look at their trenches and simply left their positions.
Senior commanders in the fortress town noticed that disaster was looming and began plucking companies and battalions from the brigade and assigning them to more experienced units that were running low on manpower.
However, this only expedited the 157th Mechanized Brigade's fall apart. As Militaryland observed, the unit had been broken down into its component parts, making proper coordination impossible.
The 155th Mechanized Brigade is infamous among the 150-series units. But it's not the only one disintegrating upon encountering real combat conditions. In late December, the 155th Mechanized Brigade deployed to Pokrovsk with its German-made Leopard 2A4 tanks—and almost immediately fell apart.
Critics argue that Ukraine's general staff in Kyiv should have split up the demoralized brigades before they even reached the frontline. The individual soldiers and tanks could have bolstered veteran units that were already war-weary and knew how to survive the Russian onslaught.
"Why not reinforce the tried-and-true brigades?" one soldier asked Hromadske.
According to Tatarigami, founder of the Frontelligence Insight analysis group in Ukraine, the issue stemmed from an "organizational and leadership failure." Leaders in Kyiv were apparently eager to demonstrate their manpower and political will to their foreign allies by forming new army brigades.
However, this strategy has resulted in the creation and deployment of fragile, inexperienced units that have subsequently suffered at the hands of Russia's forces.
First, it was the 155th Mechanized Brigade. A few weeks later, it was the 157th Mechanized Brigade.
"One can only wonder why these problems are being overlooked by the top command and hope that the remaining not-yet-deployed brigades—namely 156th, 158th, and 159th—can learn from these mistakes," Militaryland stated.
There's reason to be hopeful. Upon learning of the 155th Mechanized Brigade's collapse, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly halted the formation of new brigades and ordered new recruits to join existing units. This decision came too late to save the 157th Mechanized Brigade, but it may offer some future units a chance to avoid their fate.
The 157th Mechanized Brigade, one of the fragile units in Ukraine's 150-series, was formed within recent years, and its base is located in Pokrovsk, a city of strategic importance in eastern Ukraine that Russia is eager to capture.
Despite its recent formation, the 157th Mechanized Brigade has struggled in combat, with reports of heavy casualties and desertion, ultimately leading to its disintegration during its deployment to Pokrovsk.