hurricanes Spartan. Border of Steel. Azov. rage frontier Chervona Kalyna, the name of a Ukrainian national march, and Kara Dag, a mountain in Crimea.
These are the names of the new combat brigades tasked with driving Russian troops out of Ukraine. A total of 40,000 new soldiers are fighting alongside the regular army in eight offensive brigades – including former police officers and soldiers, but also women and people with no military experience.
The “Burewiy”, as the brigades are called in Ukraine, are to lead the counter-offensive, according to the Ukrainian government’s plan. “We are actively preparing new brigades and units that will prove themselves at the front,” announced President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a TV speech last Friday. The recruitment website reads in large letters: “Occupiers, a storm is coming!”
New Ukrainian offensive brigades: “Occupiers, a storm is coming”
In recent weeks, the brigades have been training in the forests around Kiev, among other places, to prepare for war, the news agency said Reuters . “I wanted to join because I want revenge, as harsh as that sounds in the 21st century,” Dmytro, a fighter with the Brigade Border of Steel, told Reuters. He previously worked in an exchange office. “We must take revenge for our entire people, for the murdered children,” he continues.
With huge billboards across the country and social media campaigns, the Ukrainian military has been campaigning since early February to recruit tens of thousands of volunteers to fight Putin’s troops. Because the Ukrainian losses are also high: leaked US secret service documents recently showed that Ukraine had to mourn up to 131,000 dead and wounded. The same document spoke of up to 223,000 Russian casualties. The new brigades report to the Interior Ministry, not the military. Inexperienced civilians have to be trained for four months, former soldiers and police officers for two, says Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
2.5 percent of the new units are women
Women are also fighting in the new offensive brigades. 2.5 percent of the units are female. “Our women are patriotic enough, strong, and they hate the enemy no less than the men. They want to serve,” Klymenko said. They will also be supported by thousands of new soldiers trained by Western allies outside Ukraine. They all would want to liberate Ukraine. “We are writing the great history of our state for many decades to come,” the Interior Minister continued.
It is still unclear when the counteroffensive will begin. But it doesn’t seem to last much longer. “We will constantly train while the brigade is being formed and we are waiting for combat orders,” says Valeriy Padytel, the commander of the Border of Steel Brigade. He led border guards defending the Ukrainian city of Mariupol last year and was hiding at the Azovstal Steelworks, where he was captured by Russian forces. The Ukrainian military leadership described the hundreds of Azov fighters who held out in the steelworks for weeks as “heroes of our time”.
Offensive Brigade Azov: “There are no hopeless situations”
Azov – one of the eight combat brigades now also bears this name. Bohdan “Tavr” Krotevych is their interim commander, he too was in Russian captivity until the fall. “We are ready to reclaim territory,” he told the ” Washington Post “. 1,000 fighters of the nationalist Azov regiment, which surrendered in the battle for Mariupol and the steelworks after a long period of obstinacy, are still prisoners of war.
The Volunteer Union, once the military wing of the nationalist Azov movement, has been fighting alongside regular Ukraine units in Donbass against Russian paramilitaries since 2014. Again and again, however, the focus was on the association’s ultra-nationalist roots, which is why the unit is not allowed to receive Western weapons, among other things.
The new Azov combat brigade is now “a different entity,” a US State Department spokesman said recently. They now want to recruit another 6,500 fighters, according to the Washington Post. Recently, the new brigade has also taken over other parts of the National Guard to strengthen combat effectiveness. “Our experience in Azovstal shows us that there are no hopeless situations,” says Krotevych, referring to the upcoming offensive of the eight new units.
