Now, Ukraine started the war with at least 18 active Army maneuver brigades. The Army had at least 9 reserve brigades ready to be activated. They started with war with 11 artillery brigades, two Army artillery brigades in reserve, and one Naval Infantry artillery brigade. The airborne forces provided 5 more brigades put two in reserve and there were two naval infantry brigades. This gave them a total of 25 maneuver brigades at the start of the war and as the other reserve brigades were activated (if they all were) at least 11 more for a total of 36 maneuver brigades. But Ukraine has since, over the last year, raised a number of other brigades. This possibly includes:
Status uncertain:
Separate Presidential Brigade – Separate Presidential Brigade | MilitaryLand.net
1st Special Purpose Brigade – 1st Special Purpose Brigade | MilitaryLand.net
2 International Brigade
3rd Assault Brigade Azov – 3rd Assault Brigade | MilitaryLand.net. 3rd Assault Bde created on 1 January 2023, using elements from the Azov Rgt.
5th Assault Brigade – 5th Assault Brigade | MilitaryLand.net. 5th Assault Rgt was upgrade to a brigade on 24 Feb. 2023, and the Aidar Bn (24th Assault Bn) was attached to it.
Regular Army units:
13th Jager Brigade – status uncertain – 13th Jager Brigade | MilitaryLand.net
21st Mechanized Brigade – raised and ready for offensive.
22nd Mechanized Brigade – status uncertain – 22nd Mechanized Brigade | MilitaryLand.net
23rd Mechanized Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 23 окрема механізована бригада | Facebook and 23rd Mechanized Brigade | MilitaryLand.net.
31st Mechanized Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 31 окрема механізована бригада | Facebook
32nd Mechanized Brigade – raised and ready for offensive.
37th Mechanized? Brigade – raised and ready for offensive.
41st Mechanized Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 41 окрема механізована бригада | Facebook
42nd Mechanized Brigade – status uncertain
47th Mechanized Brigade – raised and ready for offensive.
65th Mechanized Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 65 окрема механізована бригада ЗСУ | Facebook
66th Mechanized Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 66 окрема механізована бригада Сухопутних військ ЗС України | Facebook
67th Mechanized Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 67 омбр ДУК | Facebook
68th Jager Brigade – status uncertain
88th Mechanized Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 88 окрема механізована бригада | Facebook
110th Mechanized Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 110 окрема механізована бригада імені генерал-хорунжого Марка Безручка | Facebook
115th Mechanized Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 115 окрема механізована бригада ЗСУ | Facebook
116th Mechanized Brigade – raised and ready for offensive.
117th Mechanized Brigade – raised and ready for offensive.
118th Mechanized Brigade – raised and ready for offensive.
142nd Reserve Rifle Brigade – status uncertain –
Air Assault:
71st Jager Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 71 окрема єгерська бригада Десантно-штурмових військ ЗС України | Facebook
77th Airmobile Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 77 окрема аеромобільна бригада ДШВ ЗС України | Facebook
82nd Air Assault Brigade – raised and ready for offensive
Naval Infantry:
37th Marine Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 36 окрема бригада морської піхоти імені контрадмірала Михайла Білинського | Mykolaiv | Facebook
38th Marine Brigade – status uncertain – (20+) 37 окрема бригада морської піхоти | Facebook
International Legion (under TDF) – International Legion | MilitaryLand.net
This is up to 26 more Army brigades, up to three more air assault brigades, two Naval Infantry Brigades and the International Legion. This is assuming they have all been raised and manned. We know for sure that only 8 of them have. I am not sure that any brigade has been eliminated from combat or made “combat ineffective” (a term I have some issues with). Certainly the 128th has taken a couple of hits over the last year.
Now, the classified joint staff handbook for 1 March stated that Ukraine has 34 Maneuver Brigades, 13 “Fires” brigades/regiments (meaning artillery), and 27 Brigades of the Territorial Defense Forces (TDF). Do not know how to match that count to the counts I have. I am counting more than 34 maneuver brigades, 13 artillery brigades/regiments sounds about right (I have 11 Army, 2 reserve and 1 Naval Infantry Bde). I have no idea what makes up the 27 TDF brigades and suspect some of them are the reserve brigades I am counting with the Army.
They show the 34 maneuver brigades as 3 armor (I count 5, including 3 reserve), 13 Mechanized infantry (I count 9 regular and 5 reserve at the start, not counting newly raised), 7 other infantry (I count 4 regular motorized infantry and one reserve), 7 other infantry (I can’t read the symbol, air Assault? – I do have 5 regular air assault bdes and 2 reserve), 2 mountain (I count 2 regular), and 2 others (I can’t read the symbol, marine? – I count 2 Naval Infantry Bdes). So, their count of 34 maneuver bdes is similar to my count of 36 brigades (25 regular, 11 reserve) at the start of the war. Not sure where all these newly raised brigades are counted.
Among the fire units, they count only 9 brigades and 4 regiments. All 27 TDF brigades are marked as infantry.
They specifically listed 9 brigades as being prepared for the spring offensive. This includes:
- 116th MBde (new unit),
- 47th MBde (new unit),
- 33rd Bde (reserve unit, mechanized?),
- 21st Bde (new unit, mechanized?),
- 32nd Bde (new unit, mechanized?),
- 37th Bde (new unit, mechanized? Not listed on militaryland.net),
- 118th MBde (new unit),
- 117th Bde (new unit, mechanized?),
- 82nd Air Assault Bde (new unit).
Other newly raised or being raised units include 5 various brigades, 2 Jager bdes, 11 MBde, 1 reserve rifle bde, 2 air assault bdes, and 2 naval infantry bdes.
