Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade, one of Ukraine’s most well trained, best equipped, most powerful Ukrainian brigades in its armed forces, suffered defeat before withdrawing entirely from the Pokrovsk direction. The defeat of Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade is an indication of the degree of disintegration Ukraine’s armed forces continue to witness in its defense of the Donbas.
Russia’s advances, which the Institute for the Study of War have described as ‘rapid tactical gains,’ throughout the southern Donetsk region of Avdiivka have witnessed the fall of multiple villages. Most notably after the fall of Avdiivka, Russia seized a series of villages such as Ocheretyne as well as Netailove, two of the most strategically significant villages for Russia’s further incursion into the Pokrovsk direction. In terms of Ocheretyne, for instance, the Russians advanced from there to Vozdvizhenka, which is less than 7 kilometers from the famous Versorgungsweg, the T0504 road of life for the agglomeration of villages before Pokrovsk to northern Donetsk settlements in or around Bakhmut-Artemovsk. In terms of Netailove, which is located southeast of Ocheretyne, the Russians made advances, securing the seizure Karlivka, Umanske and Novoselivka Persha, the latter two being located to the northwest of Netailove.
Syrsky, who inherited the challenges his predecessor, the major supporter of the Nazi ideology of Stephan Bandera, Zaluzhny, assigned the 47th Mechanized Brigade to defend the Pokrovsk direction after the fall of Avdiivka on February 17th, 2024. Russia’s armed forces, which received confirmation of the 47th Brigade’s equipment from reconnaissance, began to hunt the Abrams tanks NATO instructors taught soldiers from the brigade how to use.
Russian Panzerjägers, trained at a special facility during the winter in 2022б now made famous in an exclusive Russian documentary by one of the more important sources of information on the Russian military, Военная Приемка, began to target these tanks in rapid succession throughout the area of Pokrovsk direction shortly after 47th Mechanized Brigade’s arrival. On March 10, 2024, nearly a month after the fall of Avdiivka, the New York Times published an article detailing the 47th Mechanized Brigade’s training with Abrams. In an article entitled, “Russia’s Advance in Eastern Stronghold Loses Steam After Quick Gains,” the Times noted: “It’s 47th Brigade, which the United States trained and equipped last year, has been defending Berdyachi.” “A video released by Ukraine’s defense ministry purported to show the brigade using an American made Abrams tank, one of the United State’s most advanced.”
By April 20th, 2024, the Times, expressing doubt in the viability of tanks for warfare in the 21st century, noted how Russian First Person View drones destroyed more than five of the 31 Abrams under the command of the 47th Mechanized Brigade’s control. [1] On May 2nd, 2024 Russia’s claimed control over Berdyahchi, the village for in whose defense the Times described Ukraine as throwing “some of its best troops” (i.e., the 47th). By July 16th, 2024, Russian military bloggers posted collections of screenshots from footage on direct hits to more than 14 Abrams. After eliminating nearly half of the fleet of Abrams the United States provided Ukraine through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative[2], the United States requested the tanks to be withdrawn for the installation of modifications and upgrades, some of which have been sighted recently in the Pokrovsk direction. Although the American journalist, David Axe, claimed in an article entitled, “In Berdychi, Ukraine’s M-1 Abrams Tanks Made Their Last Stand—And Halted The Russian Advance,” the Ukrainian tank battalion under the commander of the 47th Mechanized Brigade disintegrated, leaving less than a tank company’s strength left in a series of lost villages from Lastochkyne to Berdyachi.
In addition to the disintegration of its tank battalion, the 47th Mechanized Brigade showed signs of deterioration even well before its defense of Pokrovsk began. Prior to its arrival in the Pokrovsk direction, the 47th Mechanized Brigade received the appointment of its 3rd commander.[3] The military blogger in support of U.S. led NATO’s Ukraine stated on March 10, 2024 the following: “47th Mechanized Brigdae has a new commander, a third in the last six months.” Ukraine’s high command, however, later appointed a fourth commander, prompting the Spanish daily, El Pais, to comment the following: “La 47ª Brigada ha tenido cuatro comandantes en un año.”
Later the brigade received prisoners after Zelensky passed a law, allowing convicts to join Ukraine’s armed forces in exchange for a pardon. On July 14th, 2024, the chief sergeant of the brigade awarded sleeve patches to the soldiers of the special battalion called “Shkval” of the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade. Reported in an article entitled, “Усі мають право на другий шанс: бійцям спецбатальйону з колишніх в’язнів “Шквал” 47-ї ОМБр вручили нарукавні знаки,” the battalion quickly dissolved. Composed of former prisoners who volunteered to defend NATO’s expansion, the battalion immediately entered the battle for Novoselivka Persha with poor results. Russian military bloggers, for instance, provided video footage of these soldiers surrendering as early as July 16th, 2024 during the brigade’s defense of the village, Novoselivka Persha.[4] No less than two days after entering battles, soldiers from this battalion surrendered.
These changes in its command structure, from the highest levels to the lower levels of its officer core, as well as its receipt of hundreds of prisoners as contract soldiers, the majority of whom surrendered to Russia, suggest that the brigade began to reconstitute continuously all the way around its force structure well before its assignment to the Pokrovsk direction, indicating that the elements of its defeat were sown within the seeds of its own development well before it entered into combat.
It is likely that the Russians heaped the last straw on the camel’s back during the battle for Prohres, the village located just outside Volch’e in the area south of Ocheretyne. Once named the ’emergency brigade’ [5], Ukraine’s 47th brigade could not complete its mission to rescue the 115th Mechanized Brigade. “After the collapse, the Ukrainian army’s elite 47th Mechanized Brigade—the main operator of the army’s American-made armored vehicles—rushed into the breach in a desperate attempt to prevent a deeper Russian breakthrough.” [6] The brigade, however, not only failed to prevent a deeper Russian breakthrough but to stop the Russians from encircling the 115th. The outnumbered brigade “could not restrain the enemy,” Deep State reported. By August 20th, less than a month after the failed rescue, the 47th Mechanized Brigade withdrew from the Avdiivka fronts in defeat.
Trained by both Germany as well as the United States, the brigade’s changes are reflective of the brigades at more or less the same strength as the 47th Mechanized Brigade. Seen from the perspective of the history of the 47th Mechanized Brigade, the overall state of Ukraine’s brigades, their formation, their all around continuous reconstitution, the numerous defeats brigades like the ones the 47th brigade faced on the battlefield cast a dark cloud over the force structure for Ukraine’s entire military.
It is a widely held belief that due to Ukraine’s dependence on countries such as Germany and the United States that Ukraine is unable to align its force structure with its military doctrine for manpower or matériel. The 47th Mechanized Brigade demonstrates the result of this misalignment for the entire Ukrainian military.
References
[1] – [“Do Tanks Have a Place in 21st-Century Warfare?”. The New York Times, 04/20/24]
[2] – [“Fact Sheet on U.S. Security Assistance to Ukraine,” U.S. State Department, January 25, 2023]
[3] – [“47th Mechanized Brigade has a new commander,” MilitaryLand.net, March 10th, 2024]
[4] – [mir_perezagruzka:987]
[5] – [“The War-Weary 47th Mechanized Is Ukraine’s ‘Emergency Brigade.’ The Pentagon Is Rushing Replacement Vehicles To Keep The Exhausted Unit In The Fight.” Forbes, April 30th, 2024]
[6] – [“A Ukrainian Brigade Collapsed—And Now Hundreds Of Soldiers Are Surrounded Near Prohres,” Forbes, July 24th, 2024]