The new 43rd Mechanized Brigade, the last to receive the insignia, is active in the Svatove sector, exactly in the area where the Russians managed to advance by about 4/5 kilometers around July 20 before being, largely, driven back.

The 68th Jager Brigade seems to be in that specific area too. It looks like Rybar was right, having announced elements of this brigade in that sector for several weeks. Let’s recall that the 68th Brigade was one of those that led the Ukrainian offensive actions in the Velyka Novosilka sector in June. Throughout the winter this brigade covered the western flank of the Vuhledar sector supporting the 72nd Mech Brigade. In the first half of June it was brought into action in parallel with the 35th Marine Brigade achieving good successes (such as the liberation of Blahodate) after the first week that had seen a bumpy start in the flanks of the sector, by the 37th Marine Brigade in the eastern bank of the Mokri Yaly River and by the 23rd and the 31st Mech Brigades in the western one (there was talk of the withdrawal from the front of one of the new brigades due to losses - in my opinion it could be the 23rd Brigade in fact, hopefully it’s temporary).

At the present the area of responsibility of the 68th Brigade in the Southern Front (i.e. the immediate eastern bank of the Mokri Yaly) is expected to have been taken over by the 38th Marine Brigade (which entered the game this month) and elements of the 35th Marine Brigade. Which are supported perhaps by a battalion of the Separate Presidential Brigade. As of now the Velyka Novosilka sector is basically in the hands of the Ukrainian Marine Corps (recently formed as an armed force on its own, like with the Air Assault Forces), with all the four marine brigades deployed there. There are rumors about the creation of the 39th Marine Brigade but no definitive evidence yet afaik.

The “twin” brigades of the 43rd Mech, i.e., the 41st, 42nd and 44th are all between Kupyansk and Kreminna. The 41st should be in Kupyansk as confirmed by this interview; the 42nd is supposed to have been deployed in Kreminna for a month and a half; the 44th could be around Kupyansk, which may be proven by this Rosomak (the 44th fields them) hit by Russian artillery fire.

More details are beginning to come out about what happened in the Svatove sector in the second half of July - the Russian offensive was a substantial operational failure but it appears that the Ukrainians had to employ a not negligible number of reserves. The Russians have employed a major grouping of troops in the area after all. In the last few days they would have returned to the attack from Kovalivka and gained about 1 km, but at the moment we are talking about minor movements that are not relevant in the grand scheme of things.

Let’s remember that when we talk about brigades, particularly the new ones, we are often talking about 1/2 battalions, not the whole brigade. The others maybe are either still in training or held in reserve. Since inter-brigade rotations are very rare for the UAF in the conflict, the rotations occur at the battalion level within the same brigade. For example, the area affected by the Russian advance of July 20/21 (between Novojehorivka and Karmazynivka) was the responsibility of the 66th Mech Brigade, and elements of this brigade probably had considerable casualties in the recent weeks; nevertheless, new recruits of the brigade are training in a battalion not currently deployed, perhaps near to relieving another battalion of the brigade that bore the brunt of the Russian offensive in the last month.

One interesting thing is that it appears the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, one of the most competent in the Ukrainian Army and among the main defenders of Bakhmut in both 2022 and 2023, has received CV90s. This would explain why we saw a CV90 being damaged near Khromove last week. It could mean that the 21st Mech Brigade is still entirely between Svatove and Kreminna; the 1st Mechanized Battalion of this brigade has CV90s while the others probably have Rosomaks. Paging u/svenne here.

The 82nd Air Assault Brigade was officially deployed around Robotyne, Orikhiv sector. At the moment it has seen limited action, despite Russian propaganda that they would have already destroyed three Strykers that apparently… were BTRs. But the fact that it was committed confirms what has been clear for some time: whether we like it or not, this direction is the Ukrainian General Staff’s favored. Just a sunk cost fallacy? Or is there a clear and defined strategy behind this choice, perhaps supported by Ukrainian assessments that the Russian 58th Army is quite damaged after two months of fighting (then again, if as rumored it received two regiments of the 7th VDV Division as reinforcements, it could be the case)?

The 116th Mech Brigade also reportedly entered the scene in the sector, following the 118th already deployed in late July. That would leave the 117th as the last brigade not yet committed in the Orikhiv sector. We will see if the 47th Brigade will be rotated for a break or continue in frontline actions (ditto for the 65th Brigade, the 47th’s “colleagues” for the vast majority of the actions, particularly in June). There are rumors that the 46th Airmobile Brigade also began to be deployed here, as would elements of the 71st Jager Brigade - a sign that the Air Assault Forces Command (of which the 71st is part too) is beginning to get very heavily involved in the actions in this sector.

At this point, not taking into account the non-deployed battalions of the already committed brigades and the detached battalions, the largest Ukrainian reserve in terms of non-committed brigades are a few brigades of the Offensive Guard and the usual “old” three mechanized brigades that have been off the radar for months (61st, 62nd, 115th - although the latter might be in the rear of Kupyansk). For the Offensive Guard, Kara-Dag and Spartan Brigades are already deployed in the Orikhiv sector. The Azov Brigade has also certainly been deployed in this sector for the past month and a half, along with the two other brigades mentioned earlier and the 33rd Mech around Novopokrovka, but these days it was announced that it would take part in actions in the Serebrianka Forest near Kreminna. We shall see. The Burevii and Rubizh Brigades have already been active for a long time in the Siversk salient. Chervona Kalyna Brigade is said to have arrived in the Orikhiv sector this week. Elements of Lyut Brigade should be near Bakhmut while Stalevyi Kordon Brigade is supposed to be near Kupyansk. Khartiia Brigade (the last added in the OG) remains undeployed currently.

The most mysterious brigade is the 88th Mech. In late May, a video had been released by the brigade that was geolocated in the Kupyansk sector, which would have made this brigade the first, among those formed in 2023, to be deployed to the front. Then nothing else was published. Neither Ukrainian nor Russian sources have ever mentioned it as far as I have seen. Their Facebook page has been inactive since June.

Then there is the 13th Jager Brigade of which very little is known about. There is, however, a video on their Facebook page from the last week that would show a team from this brigade in action in the “northern area of operations”, if the translation is to be trusted. Could they be starting to get experience in the border with the Belgorod Oblast? The 60th Mech Brigade that was the formation deployed in that area would have been seen on several occasions in the second line of Bakhmut in the recent weeks, by the way. Lastly, if what has been published lately is true, the 5th Tank Brigade, the “ghost brigade”, would be under construction. I call it “ghost” because on paper it existed even before February 2022 but was never activated despite several rumors in the last year and a half - the upcoming delivery of Leopard 1A5s in large numbers may have unlocked the situation.