Brigades - Ground Forces Order of Battle
In the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the brigade ( ital. brigata — squad, troop) was the main and largest tactical military unit in the Ground , Airborne Assault Forces and the Naval Forces. Most brigades are separate and subordinate to operational commands.
The mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces has about 3,000 people and consists of 3 mechanized battalions and a tank battalion (reinforced, 4 tanks per platoon), up to 40 tanks. The brigade was a tactical military unit in all types of armed forces , military branches. Usually consists of three to six battalions with the addition of support units. Conventionally speaking, a brigade was an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades can make up a division . If the brigade was not part of a unit or association — in a division / corps / army — such a brigade was separate. The brigade commander was usually a brigadier general or a major general , in some cases a colonel.
A brigade was a type of military formation that occupies an intermediate position between a regiment and a division. A brigade was a type of grassroots structural unit in various organizations, in this sense there are (existed), for example: production teams; Front theater brigades; and others. The brigade organization of troops, in comparison with the regiment, has a higher ability to act independently. Brigades of special troops are distinguished by the ability to comprehensively solve the tasks assigned to them. The advantage of brigades over divisions was their greater maneuverability. The heterogeneity and autonomy of the combat strength makes it possible for the brigade to reorganize the battle formation in a shorter time, to regroup within the operational direction along the front and in depth. Brigades have operational-tactical independence, which allows them to operate for a long time in isolation from the main forces in disparate directions.
- mechanized (OMBr)
- motorized infantry (OMPBr)
- assault troops (ODSHBr)
- mountain assault (OGSHBr)
- Jaeger / Light Infantry (OEBr)
- tank (OTBr)
- artillery (OABr)
The tank brigade has a similar structure to the mechanized brigade, but contains 3 tank battalions (3 tanks in a platoon) and 1 mechanized one.
Soldiers who laid down arms during military operation against protesters in east Ukraine would face a tribunal, coup-imposed acting President Aleksandr Turchinov said 17 April 2014. “The 25th paratroopers brigade, the personnel of which demonstrated cowardice and laid down their arms, will be dissolved. And the soldiers responsible will be held accountable in court,” Turchinov said at a parliamentary session. The previous day crews of six Ukrainian armored personnel carriers sent to the town of Kramatorsk switched sides and joined the local self-defense squads. The defected troops, all of whom come from neighboring Dnepropentrovsk, explained their move by their unwillingness to go into battle against the local population.
Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said 09 January 2015 that it was planned to increase the strength of army personnel from 232,000 to 250,000 people, as well as to create six mechanized brigades, a mountain infantry regiment, three artillery brigades and two army aviation brigades.
The Ukrainian ground forces doubled in the two years and eight months since Russia expanded the war. The Ukrainian Army's Ground Forces , Airborne Assault Forces , Marine Corps , Homeland Defense Forces , and the National Guard of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine formed a total of several dozen new brigades , each with 2,000 personnel and hundreds of vehicles.
However, it appears that at least two of these brigades were fake. In February 2023, someone created accounts on social media for the 88th Independent Mechanized Brigade and the 13th Independent Jaeger Brigade and began posting photos of the new units' personnel and equipment. A few weeks later, local authorities in Balash District, Rivne Oblast, northern Ukraine, which borders Belarus, reported that both the 88th Mechanized Brigade and the 13th Jaeger Brigade had joined the Ukrainian Army in this direction, but the Balash District had been deceived. MilitaryLand, a Ukrainian research group that tracks the formation of Ukraine's ground combat forces, has raised doubts about the 88th Mechanized Brigade and the 13th Jaeger Brigade , which have not shown signs of participating in combat since early 2023. It recently asked the Ukrainian General Staff whether these brigades existed , to which they responded, "There is no such organization in the Ukrainian military structure as the 88th Mechanized Brigade ." MilitaryLand also concluded that the 13th Jaeger Brigade "is very likely not real."
Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhny was to blame for the failure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces counteroffensive, having allowed the Ukrainian army to lose ten brigades, former Rada deputy Igor Mosiychuk made this statement in an interview with journalist Vasily Apasov. "The counteroffensive was a fatal mistake, everyone understands that. We lost ten brigades. Freshly formed, with equipment and weapons," he said 01 February 2024.
The Ukrainian army command continues to increase the number of its special forces. In early April, it was reported that a ranger regiment was being formed as part of the special operations forces. However, it became known that the Kiev regime had approached the issue even more radically. The Ukrainian Armed Forces would deploy not a regiment, but an entire corps of rangers. This was reported by the telegram channel "Z committee + map of the SVO", which monitors the situation on the front. The structure of the association has not yet been announced, it was only known that it would include as many as four regiments of rangers.
The formation of the new corps raised serious questions, primarily concerning its manning. It was doubtful that the Kiev regime would be able to create such a special-purpose unit from scratch. Presumably, it would be formed from among the units of Ukrainian neo-Nazis fighting under the protection of the enemy's main intelligence directorate. Recently the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces had carried out a number of operations that ended in failure. One of the main reasons for the enemy's failures was the serious drawdown of its personnel.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces were preparing ten additional brigades to repel the Russian offensive, the Economist reported 10 May 2024, citing the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Oleksandr Pavlyuk. "One of the most urgent tasks facing the general is the creation of ten new brigades to prepare for a Russian offensive," noted the author of the article, who spoke with Pavlyuk. At the same time, some of the new units are expected to be used to defend the capital of Ukraine. At the same time, the journalist notes that the number of personnel in the Ukrainian Armed Forces was a cause for concern, and the pace of mobilization in Ukraine has slowed significantly.
Pavlyuk claimed that the Ukrainian authorities had the personnel to form them, but they needed Western artillery and armored vehicles to create new units. To spome, Pavlyuk's statements seemed, to put it mildly, strange. The main problem of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was precisely the shortage of trained personnel. First of all, officers. With the help of permanent mobilization, the Kyiv regime had so far managed to replenish losses in existing units, but the quality of the personnel had already begun to decline. How the Armed Forces of Ukraine would staff ten more brigades under these conditions was unknown. However, it appears that Pavlyuk’s statements were made with the aim of soliciting additional weapons and military equipment from Western countries.
It should be noted that new units and formations of troops had indeed been formed in the Ukrainian Armed Forces recently. The appearance in Ukraine of brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine of the "150th" series, as well as the approaching appearance of already formed and "160th" numbers of mechanized, infantry and chasseurs brigades, could not but raise a fairly simple question: why form new formations instead of replenishing old brigades. This issue has actually existed for quite some time, because, for example, about two dozen separate brigades were tentatively created in the Armed Forces of Ukraine by 2023. But now the General Staff has explained why this particular decision was made.
A mechanized brigade of three battalions with a strength of 5,000 people requires, according to the conditional standardized staffing list of the 2021 model, 109 infantry fighting vehicles, 31 tanks, 36 artillery systems and 18 short-range air defense systems. In the case of more budgetary motorized infantry: 79 armored personnel carriers, 13 tanks, 36 artillery systems and 18 short-range air defense systems.
The Ukrainian 141st separate infantry brigade received a batch of BMP-2 , which may indicate its reorganization into the 141st separate mechanized brigade. According to available data, this was the first of the so-called "140th series" brigades, formed almost entirely from infantry to participate in the failed counteroffensive of the summer of 2023, to begin receiving heavy equipment. Interestingly, the reverse process was observed in the brigades of the later "150th series" . Initially formed as mechanized units, the 150th brigades, due to a lack of appropriate equipment, ended up as infantry and ranger brigades, and only later received some of the necessary equipment, allowing them to at least formally correspond to their original name.
The 5th separate tank brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces had been reorganized into a heavy mechanized brigade, according to the recruiting website LobbyX. In addition to the 5th brigade, the 17th and 117th brigades also have the status of a heavy mechanized brigade. The brigade was based on two tank battalions with Leopard 1A5DK tanks , equipped with Kontakt-1 dynamic protection blocks, and two mechanized battalions. The brigade's units are currently operating in the Pokrovsk direction.
As of fall 2023, the Ukrainian army had already formed 10 new brigades: four mechanized, five infantry, and one chasseur brigade. The infantry brigades are the least equipped and usually move on trucks. The chasseur brigade was medium-weight, consisting of trucks and light armored vehicles. The mechanized brigades use tracked and wheeled armored vehicles and usually have 10 to 12 tanks in their composition.
The repulsion of the full-scale Russian invasion caused the need to further increase the number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, primarily the Ground Forces. However, the pace of formation of new units significantly outpaced their saturation with the necessary equipment. As a result, instead of mechanized brigades, it was necessary to create infantry brigades. Since the fall of 2023, the Defense Forces Command formed 10 new brigades — four mechanized, five infantry, and one ranger. In particular, in the spring of 2024, it became known about the emergence of the 156th, 157th, 158th and 159th separate infantry brigades (SIB).
By October 2024 the Ukrainian General Staff was struggling to procure heavy equipment for 14 newly formed brigades [10 in the 150 series and 4 in the 160 series, seemingly]. The Ukrainian General Staff hsd begun forming new brigades of the 160th series, and it was reported that the backbone of the brigade would be both men busified on the streets of Ukrainian cities, and Ukrainians abroad. The latter sounded interesting - the Ukrainian authorities assume the formation of some volunteer units from Ukrainians living outside the country - for example, there was already a certain "Ukrainian Legion" that has been forming in Poland since mid-July this year, later it would become part of one new brigade, the same step to create volunteer Ukrainian units was also being considered by the Czech authorities.
Zelensky made a big deal out of these units throughout the year and Macron also made a big deal about the 155th specifically, while these units were never meant for the same counteroffensive action as the 2023 brigades and only to give troops on the front a break, it seems it would take some time before they can only do that and they are not going to 1:1 replace units like the 47th or 95th.
Huge problems seem to haunt almost all new Ukrainian brigades with numbers from 150 and above. The trend of assembling new brigades without replenishing the old ones met with criticism in the ranks of the Ukrainian military and analysts, since the same brigades of the 150th series, consisting of men caught on the streets, have not yet shown miracles of ingenuity and military courage, while the old brigades are experiencing a shortage of personnel, although they are sometimes replenished.
These brigades, initially formed as mechanized, due to a lack of equipment and organizational problems, became motorized infantry, then mechanized again, and then ended up as Jaeger (light infantry). There was even a whole investigation about the significant problems in the 152nd Brigade , and the crowning achievement of what was happening was the situation with the 155th Mechanized Brigade, trained in France , which upon arrival in Ukraine partially disbanded and partially was scattered among other units in different directions. Now the fate of yet another reorganization has befallen the very first and best-equipped brigade from the failed series.
The saga of forming the "150th series" brigades in the Ukrainian Armed Forces received another development. Thus, according to Ukrainian sources, the 150th separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was reformed into the 40th coastal defense brigade and transferred to the subordination of the 30th Marine Corps of the Ukrainian Navy. According to official reports, the unit received Dutch YPR-765 armored personnel carriers with an Australian EOS R400-Mk2 combat module with 40-mm Mk19 grenade launchers.
The new brigades which have serial numbers 160 would be trained abroad and would recruit from Ukrainians living in these countries. The formation of the new brigades depends on the successful mobilization of perhaps 10,000 or more new recruits, as well as continued foreign support for Ukraine’s military effort. The fighters would likely be equipped with equipment provided by Western partners, depending on where they are trained.
It was not initially clear how many "160th series" brigades are currently being formed and what kind of brigades they would be. Based on previous stages of expansion, there could be 10, and, according to documentation, such brigades require 20,000 soldiers. Ten brigades would require thousands of pieces of equipment. Over the 29 months of full-scale war, Ukraine's allies have provided about 12,000 pieces of various equipment, while the Defense Forces have lost approximately 6,400 pieces.
Considering the formation time of the previous "150" series brigades, it could take six months or more before the "160" series brigades are ready for combat. This means that these brigades may not be ready for action until the fourth year of the war.
David Axe in Forbes reported on 26 August 2025, the preparation of the new mechanized units of the 160 series indicated that Ukrainian leaders do not expect the war to end soon. “It may take months before the first of the new brigades, each numbering up to 2,000 personnel, was fully staffed—and even more months before these brigades are combat-ready,” Forbes wrote. The formation of these new brigades depended on mobilization, possibly involving 10,000 or more recruits, and provision of military aid from Western allies.
Jerome at Militaryland reported " these brigades are intended to participate in Ukraine’s 2025 offensive, while the 150-series brigades will be tasked with relieving exhausted units currently deployed at the front." But some observers dounted that any sizeable number of Ukrainian men living abroad will join any brigade of their own free will, since many of them fled Ukraine precisely in order not to be conscripted. But these bridaes made any excuse about fear of ‘poor training, equipment, etc” moot.
In December 2024, the 141st Infantry Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces was restructured into a mechanized unit. This made it the first brigade in the 140 series, which were all infantry units, to undergo such a transformation. The brigade received its first mechanized equipment, the BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, While other units in the series were also likely planned for reformation, the exact timeline for these changes remains unconfirmed.
More than 100 brigades are currently deployed on the battlefield and each of them requires additional equipment before the number of personnel is increased, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said 14 January 2025. "We have heard the signals regarding the age of our servicemen, the draft age and so on many times. […] From both the former [U.S.] administration and NATO representatives. […] I will not give you the exact figure, because this is dangerous, but we have more than 100 brigades deployed on the battlefield and each of these brigades needs additional equipment every day," he told reporters ahead of a meeting with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius in Kyiv.
| 2023 - Ghost Brigades | ||
|---|---|---|
 13th Independent Jaeger Brigade |
 88th Independent Mechanized Brigade | |
| 2023 - Counter-Attack Brigades | ||
 141st Mechanized Brigade A4808141 OMBr |
 142nd Mechanized Brigade A4820142 OMBr |
 143rd Mechanized Brigade A4844143 OMBr |
 144th Infantry Brigade A4860144 OPBr |
||
| 2025 - Relief Brigades | ||
 151st Mechanized Brigade A4941151 OMBr |
 152nd Jaeger Brigade A4948152 OEBr |
 153rd Mechanized Brigade A4955153 OMBr |
 154th Mechanized Brigade A4962154 OMBr |
 155th Mechanized Brigade A5001155 OMBr |
 156th Mechanized Brigade A5003156 OMBr |
 157th Mechanized Brigade A5006157 OMBr |
 158th Mechanized Brigade A5002158 OMBr |
 159th Mechanized Brigade A5000159 OMBr |
| 2025 - Counter-Attack Brigades | ||
 160th Mechanized Brigade A4977160 OMBr |  161st Mechanized Brigade ???161 OMBr | 162nd Mechanized Brigade ???162 OMBr |
| Mechanized Brigades | ||
 5th Separate Mechanized brigade |
 6th Mechanized Brigade |
 7th Mechanized Brigade |
 27th Mechanized Brigade |
 30th Separate Mechanized brigade |
 61st Separate Mechanized brigade |
 72th Separate Guard Mechanized Brigade |  97th Separate Mechanized brigade |
 161st Separate Mechanized Brigade |
 188th Mechanized Brigade |
 320th Mechanized Infantry Regiment |
 675th Mechanized Infantry Regiment |
| Special Brigades | ||
 23rd Airborne Brigade |  25th Separate Dnepropetrovsk Airborne Brigade |  28th Aeromobile Brigade |
 40th Aeromobile Brigade |  79th Aeromobile Brigade |  80th Aeromobile Brigade |
5th Peacekeeping Brigade |  6th Peacekeeping Brigade |  Peacekeeping Brigade |
 3rd Separate Regiment MO GUR | 8th Separate Regiment MO GUR | |
| Other Brigades and Regiments | ||
 Airborne Anti-Aircraft Defence Regiment |  10th Saki Marine Aviation Brigade |  26th Berdichev Artillery Brigade |
| Combined Arms Brigades | ||
 327th Mechanized Mountain Infantry Regiment | Combined Arms Brigade | Combined Arms Brigade |
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