The Ukrainian Army Apparently Downgraded Its New 32nd Brigade

The Ukrainian armed forces began preparing for their 2023 offensive, which kicked off on June 4 in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk Oblasts, way back in 2022.

The preparations included the formation of at least a couple dozen new brigades: at least nine of which Ukraine’s NATO allies would equip and train. As recently as this spring, the Ukrainians had planned out which brigades would get which Western weapons.

But the plan changed. For at least one brigade, the changes apparently were dramatic.

The new 32nd Mechanized Brigade was supposed to ride in American-made armored trucks supported by some upgraded Czech tanks. But now it seems the brigade has ex-NATO M-113 armored personnel carriers and locally-made T-64 tanks. Despite one notorious photo, it does not seem the brigade got any M-2 infantry fighting vehicles from the United States.

All that is to say, it’s not clear exactly how mechanized the 32nd Mechanized Brigade really is—and how well-equipped it is for intensive counteroffensive operations.

Classified U.S. intelligence documents that a U.S. Air National Guardsman leaked online this spring list the 32nd Mechanized among the nine brigades, all belonging to the new Ukrainian 10th Corps, that NATO countries were equipping and training for the coming counteroffensive.

The documents specify the 32nd’s planned table of equipment: 90 MaxxPro armored trucks from the United States, 10 upgraded T-72EA tanks from Czech stocks, another 20 tanks of a to-be-determined model and, finally, a dozen ex-Soviet D-30 towed howitzers from Ukraine’s own pre-war reserve.

But when the 32nd’s press department began posting photos of the brigade’s training, the T-72EA was missing in action. Instead, the press officers posted photos of Ukraine’s standard T-64BV tank. It also posted pics of M-113 APCs and 2S1 self-propelled howitzers. MaxxPros and D-30s were nowhere to be seen.

The weirdest thing, however, is that there’s a photo circulating online purporting to depict 32nd Brigade troopers with an M-2 IFV.

It’s obvious why the brigade would want M-2s. The 33-ton IFVs with their 25-millimeter autocannons, TOW anti-tank missiles and space for three crew and seven passengers represent a big improvement over the 12-ton M-113s, although the latter each can squeeze in two crew and a dozen passengers. The M-113 is armed with just a single heavy machine gun. It’s lightly protected and also lacks the M-2’s excellent day-night optics.

The M-2 is the Ukrainian army’s vehicle of choice for the most dangerous assaults on Russian fortifications. It’s not for no reason that the army assigned 90 of the American-made IFVs to the 47th Assault Brigade, one of the lead units for the southern counteroffensive.

Yes, the 47th has lost two dozen of its M-2s, including 17 that it abandoned in a minefield south of Mala Tokmachka in Zaporizhzhia on June 8. But most of the crews and passengers reportedly survived the assault, thanks in large part to the M-2’s good all-around protection against mines. The United States promptly pledged a fresh batch of M-2s as replacements, and the 47th stayed in the fight.

The thing is, Ukraine so far is getting just 158 M-2s and has written off at least 28 of them that independent analysts can verify. While there’s a good chance many of those 28 damaged and abandoned M-2s are recoverable and repairable, there’s an equally good chance there are M-2 losses that no outside observers have documented.

All that is to say, Ukraine doesn’t have a lot of extra M-2s right now. In fact, it might have just enough to keep the 47th Brigade fully equipped as it grinds through Russian defenses along the axis running from Mala Tokmachka through Robotyne toward Tokmak.

It’s possible—likely, even—that the photo of 32nd Brigade troopers with an M-2 is just a selfie. The soldiers were excited to see an M-2 in the wild, perhaps at a training range, and took the photo because it was cool. Not because it represented their brigade’s actual composition.

That apparently would leave the 32nd Brigade with a middling mix of Western, Ukrainian and Soviet vehicles: M-113s, T-64BVs and 2S1s. The T-64s have modern optics, but in every other regard the vehicles are artifacts of the middle Cold War. Mechanized, yes. Sophisticated, no. And not the kind of unit you’d assign to a frontal assault on Russian fortifications.

So it should come as no surprise that the 32nd Brigade apparently has deployed to the front line just west of Svatove in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast. It’s a relatively sleepy sector, at present. Especially compared to the sectors in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk where Kyiv has focused its main counteroffensive efforts.

It’s a curious disposition for a brigade that U.S. officials once listed alongside the best-equipped, best-trained new Ukrainian units.