I was reading this morning from Ukrainian sources that several battalions from the Russian 126th Coastal Defence Brigade, 80th Arctic Brigade, and 205th Motorized Brigade would be ready to be transferred to the frontlines of the South, following the 127th Reconnaissance Brigade that has been moved in the past few days. The Russians are scraping the barrel in terms of being able to deploy the formations that are currently in reserve in Kherson Oblast, considering that a certain amount of them have to remain in the area to thwart potential Ukrainian attempts to cross the Dnipro.

Anyway - Ukrainian 5th Tank Brigade is one of the biggest mysteries for those who follow the order of battle in this conflict. Since the beginning of the war every three months or so it has been said that it was being formed or even deployed somewhere. But then there has never been confirmation. Last week there was a new report that it was being activated and received the insignia, but we still have no definitive confirmation. Personally, I am skeptical that it can be fully activated, as the tank brigades require a lot of tanks of which there is no surplus at all, and that’s the reason why Ukraine so far had not created any new tank brigade; in fact, these seem to have been rather underutilized compared to the others over the last year. Even now most of them are supposed to be deployed around Velyka Novosilka but have yet to see substantial action. I find it likely that they acted somewhat as a pool to replenish tank losses of the rest of the brigades.

The 42nd Mech should already be in action in Kreminna, right? Another brigade I am very curious about is the 13th Jager, we haven’t had any updates since they were training in Norway, if I’m not wrong.

Uhm, actually now that I think about that, it might make sense equipping it entirely with Leopard 1A5s, they’ve got the numbers. Although I doubt they will receive Abrams, I think those will go to a mechanized brigade that may also receive Bradley and/or Strykers. In the style of the 47th or the 82nd (though these should only have one tank company - an oversized one for the 47th).

But imho the issue with the Ukrainian tank brigades is mostly doctrinal - I think UAF still has to find the best way to deploy them, which might be to use the mechanized units for attacks in the style of the rest of the brigades and to use some of their “excess” armored capabilities to temporarily assist lightly armored units (think of the separate tank battalions of the US Army during WW2). Let’s also remember the failure of the Russian tank divisions in the early stage of the war with too much armour and too few dismounts.

I had seen the 42nd Mech with Strykers, let’s await confirmation! Although it must be said that the 32nd had been seen with Bradleys during training but was later somewhat downgraded and given T-64BVs + M113s.

The 80th arctic might be the best they have left on the Dnipro-I’m not really sure they can spare them either.

I would also add the 7th VDV Division which is in that area, but they have already started to deploy elements of it - the 247th Regiment has been in Staromaiorske / Volodyne for weeks now and has suffered losses.