According to British Intelligence, Russia has begun staffing the newly formed 25th Combined Arms Army of the Central Military District. One motorized division + two motorized brigades and one tank brigade. In Soviet times, the then Siberian Military District (the main ancestor of today’s CMD) was among the weakest in peacetime and was tasked with creating wartime reserves. They seem to have kept up the tradition? They also created the 40th Corps of the Southern Military District. Made up by a motorized division and a motorized brigade. Federal subjects in the Caucasus area (such as Kabardino-Balkaria) reportedly promised bonuses to the residents who enlisted in this formation.

The Western Military District is reported to be going to be split up between the new Moscow and Leningrad (St. Petersburg) MDs. There were also rumors of a new Corps in Karelia months ago but I found no more news about that. Probably Russian copium after Finland joined NATO. Shoigu had spoken about two new armies, a combined arms one and air one, and a new corps. Likely the first and third formations are those two listed above, while the “Air Army” is the one that’s supposed to be formed in the West of Russia - most likely an internal reorganization within the Air Force.

VDV, according to Teplinsky, is going to create a new division, the 104th, consisting of two new airborne regiments. In all, according to the Russians, the aim is to create 5 divisions and 26 brigades in the armed forces (I’m pretty sure this figure includes non-maneuver brigades, like Air Force’s brigades). That seems a bit of a downward plan compared to the plans of the winter when they said they wanted to create 3 motorized divisions, 2 VDV divisions, 5 artillery divisions as well as forming 7 motorized divisions from as many existing motorized brigades and expanding their 5 naval infantry brigades into as many divisions. Then there is other news such as the creation of the Azov Naval District in Mariupol - apparently made up mainly by small vessels taken from the Black Sea and Caspian Fleets.

Let’s recall, as the British MoD did in their report, that the mobilized in late 2022 either replenished the ranks of existing formations or (usually those of worst quality) were employed to create new motorized regiments of territorial defense (i.e. the regiments from the 1***th series). Now it’s the first time Russia is beginning to create complex formations such as combined arms armies (which need lots of senior officers), with the exception of the 3rd Corps formed by volunteers last summer, which despite good equipment has always performed very poorly in every sector.

These new formations as far as I read are supposed to come into action by next year, so no extremely rushed thing. Although personally I am skeptical about the chances of getting enough personnel in first place, when the current monthly enlistment flow - sizeable, but limited in relation to Russian needs - is mainly used to replenish existing units. I definitely see the need for a second major wave of mobilization. On equipment, too, there is a lot to wonder about. In theory, hundreds and hundreds of tanks and IFVs would be needed for all these new formations. It will be an opportunity to see how true or not the Russian reports about multiplied production/refurbishment capacities during 2023 are. Another issue will be providing enough shells (proportioned to the needs from their way of doing war) to organic artillery units of the new formations.

In recent months the Russian MoD seems to have been giving away T-80BVs from the storage to whatever units needed them and from whatever military district - until then such tank was used by formations from the EMD or the Arctic Fleet and by the 4th GTD. There is a reason why lately T-80BV losses have exploded upwards according to Oryx. T-62Ms are still a limited sight in organic armored units except in some instances. Although there are always more BMP-1s around compared to more recent IFVs. Let’s remind, however, the fact that Wagner was reported to have transferred its heavy equipment (tanks, BMPs, self-propelled howitzers) to the Ministry of Defense. We are not talking about huge numbers, at least when it comes to tanks and BMPs - Wagner was not much of a mechanized force - but I guess they might be used to equip these new formations. We will see.

I’m sure it’s the 32nd Brigade. Their sector should be from Raihorodka to the north, though. They probably covered the area of Nadiya and Serhiivka where the Russian advances of July 24/25 took place. According to geolocations, the brigade deployed in the sector that was most affected by the Russian advances initially (July 20/21, Novojehorivka and Karmazynivka) is the 66th which is a brigade formed in the first months of the war last year. I doubt very strongly it’s the 21st; it sits further south and faces different Russian formations (e.g., the 55th Mountain Brigade and the 234th VDV Regiment) than the other two brigades. No significant Russian successes have been reported in that area.