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27-01-2025, 05:11 PM
“Ukraine newer or newly formed brigade did not undergo the necessary combat training,” one relative of a 157th Mechanized Brigade trooper told Hromadske, “but it was immediately sent to the hottest areas” including the besieged fortress city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.
Capturing Pokrovsk is one of Russia’s top objectives as its wider war on Ukraine grinds into its fourth year. Defending it is one of Ukraine’s top objectives. Given its importance, it’s shocking to many observers that the Ukrainian army keeps reinforcing the city with dysfunctional units, including the 155th and 157th Mechanized Brigades. Both units began falling apart before they even arrived in Pokrovsk. “The situation in the 157th Mechanized Brigade mirrors that of other brigades in the 150th series,” noted from Militaryland, a collective that tracks Ukrainian military force structure. “Soldiers were taken during the formation process, units hastily deployed to front & sent without proper training, resulting in heavy casualties.”
The 157th Mechanized Brigade is one of the eight 150-series brigades—also including the 151st, 153rd, 154th, 155th, 156th, 158th and 159th Mechanized Brigades—that formed in 2023 or early 2024 and, after a lengthy period of training, began arriving on the front starting late last year.
Brigades are big, some with roughly double the usual 2,000 manpower billets of a Ukrainian ground combat brigade. But they’re also fragile—with inexperienced leaders, too few modern armored vehicles & poor morale that often results in a high desertion rate.
Capturing Pokrovsk is one of Russia’s top objectives as its wider war on Ukraine grinds into its fourth year. Defending it is one of Ukraine’s top objectives. Given its importance, it’s shocking to many observers that the Ukrainian army keeps reinforcing the city with dysfunctional units, including the 155th and 157th Mechanized Brigades. Both units began falling apart before they even arrived in Pokrovsk. “The situation in the 157th Mechanized Brigade mirrors that of other brigades in the 150th series,” noted from Militaryland, a collective that tracks Ukrainian military force structure. “Soldiers were taken during the formation process, units hastily deployed to front & sent without proper training, resulting in heavy casualties.”
The 157th Mechanized Brigade is one of the eight 150-series brigades—also including the 151st, 153rd, 154th, 155th, 156th, 158th and 159th Mechanized Brigades—that formed in 2023 or early 2024 and, after a lengthy period of training, began arriving on the front starting late last year.
Brigades are big, some with roughly double the usual 2,000 manpower billets of a Ukrainian ground combat brigade. But they’re also fragile—with inexperienced leaders, too few modern armored vehicles & poor morale that often results in a high desertion rate.
