Ukraine is creating new brigades for large-scale counterattack, 10 brigades need 1,000 vehicles

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Ukraine is creating new mechanized brigades. It's a sign that Ukraine's leaders don't expect Russia's war against Ukraine to end anytime soon. It could be months before the first of the new brigades is ready for combat, Forbes reports.

Militaryland, which closely monitors the structure of the Ukrainian military, has obtained photographs that allegedly show trainees of the new 160th Mechanized Brigade. The new mechanized brigades will be trained in other countries and will attract many recruits from Ukrainians living there.

The 160th Mechanized Brigade is reportedly training in Poland. The creation of new brigades depends on two things: successful mobilization and continued foreign support for Ukraine's war effort. Mobilization is the source of manning the new brigades. Foreign allies are likely to provide the bulk of their heavy equipment.

The formation of the brigades comes three months after the completion of the previous expansion of the army. Since last autumn, the Ukrainian army has formed 10 new brigades: four mechanized, five infantry and a ranger.

Infantry brigades are the lightest in terms of manning - they mostly ride on trucks. A Jaeger brigade is a medium-weight force, consisting of trucks and light armored vehicles. Mechanized brigades are the heaviest: they ride on tracked and wheeled armored vehicles and usually have a company of at least a dozen tanks.

It is unclear how many brigades the army is currently forming and what they will be. There may be 10.

On paper, the 10 brigades need 20,000 troops. Ukraine's mobilization law, which came into force in May, aims to attract another half-million men to the armed forces by lowering the draft age from 27 to 25, adding penalties for draft evasion, and providing more incentives for volunteers.

The various ground forces—the Marines, the National Guard, and special Border Guard units—control about 100 combat brigades and account for the majority of military personnel. The ground forces have suffered the majority of Ukraine's combat casualties, including potentially 60,000 fatalities.

Ukraine must mobilize enough troops to replace losses, as well as add troops for new brigades and any support units they need. That's easier said than done in a country of just 38 million that already supports an army of a million.

It is no coincidence that Ukraine’s Defense Ministry plans to draw conscripts from a large pool of Ukrainians living abroad. About 768,000 Ukrainian men aged 18 to 64 had received temporary protection in European Union countries as of the end of last year, according to EU data obtained by The Associated Press.

Obtaining armored vehicles could be equally challenging, and it is unclear whether Ukraine can do so without sustained foreign support. A mechanized brigade requires several hundred pieces of equipment, including tanks, combat vehicles, howitzers, multiple launch rocket systems, air defense systems, engineering vehicles, and trucks.

Ten brigades would need 1,000 vehicles. To put that into perspective, in the first 29 months of the full-scale war, Ukraine’s allies pledged to contribute about 12,000 vehicles to the war effort. Not all of those vehicles are available to the new units: They replace about 6,400 vehicles lost.