Last autumn, when the Russian offensive in the east Ukrainy was just beginning, the Ukrainian army began to form 11 new brigades. This was an increase in the number of land forces by about 10%. After about six months of training, they were to be sent to the front.
In practice, however, these are units poorly equipped with modern weaponswhich is a big problem for the Ukrainians. When older, better equipped brigades have to be withdrawn from the front line, the new brigades that will come in their place will most likely be quite poorly armed.
As noted by the Militaryland portal, which monitors the situation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, adequately equipping new units with mechanized equipment may be a serious problem for Ukraine, as it already there is a shortage of infantry fighting vehicles.
Photos from the training of one of the new units – 154th Mechanized Brigade show the vehicles at this unit’s disposal.
The core of the brigade is BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, i.e. a Soviet design from the 1960s, which was one of the first vehicles of this class in history. Currently, however, it does not present a very high combat value. Ukraine received a very large number of these vehicles from our country, where unfortunately they are still the most numerous infantry fighting vehicle in the army.
Other vehicles common in the 154th Brigade are Soviet reconnaissance vehicles BRDM-2 produced since 1963 and French armored personnel carriers VAB from the late 70s, which are slowly being withdrawn from the French armed forces. Additionally, the brigade also received American M-1117 being a development of the armored car V-100 from the 1960s. None of these vehicles have armor protection that would allow them to survive fire from bullets more powerful than those from machine guns.
The 154th Mechanized Brigade is also equipped with ex-Polish self-propelled howitzers 2S1 Gvozdika caliber 122 mm. It is one of the most widely produced vehicles of this class in the world. Its firing range is, however, quite small for today, as it is about 15 kilometers when using standard ammunition.
It is possible that the brigade also has older T-62 tanks, captured from the Russians, which were returned to the Russian army due to huge losses in the conflict with Ukraine. These vehicles have very poor situational awareness for modern times and are primarily suitable for being stationary defense positionsalthough the Russians sometimes use them not very successfully for assaults.
Until now, the Ukrainian army has been operating more advanced Soviet tanks, namely T-64which were produced in Kharkov during the Soviet era, and T-72, which were received in significant numbers from Polishincluding the modernized version praised by Ukrainians PT-91 Hard. Western designs were used in smaller numbers, such as M1A1 Abramsof which half of the 31 transferred have already been lost, Challenger 2Whether Leopard 1 and 2.
All this is the result of a slowdown in foreign deliveries of armored equipment, which peaked before the Ukrainian offensive in the summer of 2023. It is this slowdown, according to General Oleksandr Syrsky, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, that is causing new brigades to be formed without modern vehicles.
Source: geekweek.interia.pl
