Ukraine is creating new ground brigades to fight Russian aggression. This move is not clear to some troops, as the existing combat brigades critically lack the manpower to hold the front line. On November 6, in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda, the spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Dmytro Lykhoviy, explained the decision to create new brigades by the fact that the Russians had increased the number of their troops: “In order to close the front, it is necessary to create new brigades within the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There is no other effective way to counter the superior enemy. After all, today we have 1,300 kilometers of frontline with active combat clashes.”
In a November 16 interview with Ukrainian Radio, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to the host’s question about why new brigades are being created by saying: “Who told you we are creating them?… Reserve units were formed. Their core consisted of people who had been through the war. Around them were those who had mobilized. After training, everyone was waiting to be equipped with the necessary gear. All this talk about new brigades, about rotation, where one brigade replaces another. We can call it a ‘new’ brigade. But no one is creating dozens of new brigades. There are situations where a particular brigade can no longer hold a certain section because it is exhausted. Not only can you not replace it, but the number of Russian forces in the area indicates that you need to reinforce it with an additional brigade. Because the ratio of ‘Russkis’ is one to eight, or one to three.”
Slidstvo.Info reports on how one of the brigades created over the past year, the 152nd Brigade, was formed, equipped, and is now fighting. The agency’s journalists spoke with dozens of officers of various ranks, including both former and current members of the brigade. The brigade is currently in the reserve of the Donetsk Operational-Tactical Grouping, with its fighters carrying out missions in the crucial Pokrovsk sector, where other brigades created over the past year are also deployed.
“THREE MILITARY COMMISSARS, TWO HANGINGS, ONE SET HIMSELF ON FIRE”
The 152nd Separate Jaeger Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to form in September 2023. As a mechanized unit.
Before leaving for combat in August 2024, the brigade managed to become a motorized infantry brigade, and again a mechanized one, and arrived at the border of Sumy and Kursk oblasts as a jaeger brigade.
The brigade is headed by Colonel Yuriy Maksymiv, head of the Kyiv City Recruitment Center. Colonel Oleksiy Siroshtan, a Sumy regional military commissar (since August 2024 he has been the head of the Kyiv Military Institute — editor’s note), became the brigade’s chief of staff, and Poltava regional military commissar Mykhailo Kholodov was appointed Maksymiv’s deputy.
From left to right: Brigade commander Yuriy Maksymiv, head of the Civil-Military Cooperation (CMC) Oleksandr Levytskyi, deputy brigade commander Mykhailo Kholodov, brigade chief of staff Ihor Zakharov / Photo provided to Slidstvo.info by sources in the brigade
“How did it happen that three military commissars ended up in the same brigade? It’s all God’s will. After the well-known events (the decision of the National Security and Defense Council to dismiss all the heads of regional military commissariats in August 2023 – ed.), I was sent to a reserve battalion. Oleksiy Siroshtan, whom I had known for a long time, was also sent there. There we talked about how if I became the head of the brigade, he would join me as chief of staff, and if he became the commander, I would join him. It turned out that I took command of the brigade, and he became the chief of staff. Later, Mr. Kholodov called me, especially since our brigade was undergoing training in his region, and he was very helpful. And the position of deputy brigade commander was vacant, so I invited him,” explains Yuriy Maksymiv, commander of the 152nd Brigade, in a comment to Slidstvo.info about how it happened that three military commissars came to lead this military unit.
“We spent nine months in combat cohesion training; you could have a baby in that time, but ours was stillborn,” says one of the former deputy commanders of the brigade.
“We essentially functioned as a field recruitment office. While we were forming, we constantly received orders to send people to other units on the frontline. We lost 300 to 800 people a month and had to replenish our ranks with new recruits,” reports one of the senior officers of the brigade, who is still serving in the unit.
“No one was taken away during the cohesion training phase at the training ground; there were relocations due to the needs of military service. This happened because of the need to defend our homeland. Even if our brigade fought at full strength, we would still suffer losses. Of course, it affects morale when people are taken away, but it doesn’t significantly impact our combat operations,” Yuriy Maksimiv, commander of the 152nd Brigade, tells Slidstvo.Info.
“We recruited good tankers, but now we are motorized infantry, we don’t need tankers, they have to be sent somewhere, then we are mechanized again, and we need tankers again,” describes the situation one of the former deputy brigade commanders.
“When people were taken away from us, they mostly took the best, healthiest ones, and it turned out that we had about 400 people – well, an entire battalion, actually. These were people who were fit to work in rear units, in the former military language, ‘partially fit’, so I don’t know how the people at the military medical commission could [declare them] ‘fit’,” says the officer of the brigade’s medical unit.
Several of the mobilized men in the brigade had mental problems. “We tried to treat them, but two of them hanged themselves anyway, and one of them drained gasoline from a chainsaw, doused himself with it, and set himself on fire. So we put out the fire, sent him to the hospital, but a month later he died of complications there,” says the brigade’s medic.
“Another one was diagnosed with obesity, so he passed the BMT (basic military training that all mobilized soldiers undergo – ed.), but during a cohesion drill his blood pressure rose, he lied down in the dugout and never woke up,” the medic adds.
“Am I, as a former military commissar, satisfied with the personnel that joined our brigade? I’ll be frank. When our soldiers returned to the brigade from training, I tried to communicate with them, to convey that they came to the military not because they were ‘bussed in,’ but because they ultimately proved themselves to be true warriors. When we deployed to the Pokrovsk axis, I spoke with other commanders where my soldiers were assigned, and those commanders said: ‘Your jaegers are lions.’ These are the true ‘flower of the nation.’ Not that there weren’t those who didn’t take positions or those who fled, but the majority fought. You should have seen how they stood their ground, how they held on—these are true warriors,” reports Brigade Commander Maksymiv about the subsequent battles of the soldiers in this brigade.
“AND THEN ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE…”
“Only in May of this year did they start sending us people and not taking them back,” says one of the senior officers who has been serving in the brigade since the beginning. The next cohesion training with the new personnel began in August 2024, but they managed to pass it only at the platoon level. Because the order came to move to Kursk Oblast. The brigade took up the second line of defense, partly acting independently, and partly assigning some of its forces to other units. This was until the beginning of September 2024. In Kursk Oblast, the 152nd was still a mechanized brigade (for the second time mechanized – ed.), but arrived in the Pokrovsk sector as a jaeger unit.
“So people arrived here not knowing who their platoon commanders were, and the commanders didn’t know who their subordinates were. And the soldiers started being reassigned to other units immediately,” says a senior officer from the brigade’s headquarters.
“And then all hell broke loose,” says another officer from the brigade’s headquarters.
The brigade itself never fully formed on the battlefield. Instead, the infantry of the 152nd was constantly being attached to various other units. According to one of the majors, Vitaliy, who served in the brigade’s headquarters, their soldiers were often sent somewhere without proper combat orders.
“Once, our soldiers were taken to another brigade, and that brigade said, ‘Why are you here? We don’t have any documents for you,’ so they stayed there for a week before being brought back,” says Vitaliy.
“I don’t know why there’s so much chaos in the army now. Our infantrymen were told they were going into reserve, but they didn’t even know how to shoot. Then we find out that the next day they went on an assault, and a few days later, we learn that they’ve all gone missing (MIAs). Out of 20 soldiers, 15 went missing, and only 5 somehow made it back,” says Vitaliy.
According to another senior officer from the brigade’s headquarters, the brigade’s fighters are currently attached to 15 different units.
“Why is this?” asks one of the officers and answers himself: “Well, the brigade commander says he’s trying to resist somehow, but in reality, he’s told to ‘provide people,’ so he does. And the chief of staff disregards everyone, even the officers.”
“When we deployed to the area of operations, there was a need to reinforce other brigades. The situation was such that, from a military standpoint, it was more expedient to bolster the actions of those units already on the frontline, as their commanders knew the combat zone better,” explains the commander of the 152nd Brigade, Yuriy Maksymiv.
“YOU’RE A STUPID F**KTARD, AND YOUR DEPUTY IS JUST AS MUCH OF A F**KTARD AND A JERK. I’D SPIT ON HIM IF I COULD”
Colonel Oleksiy Siroshtan, who met the full-scale invasion as Sumy Oblast Military Commissar, served as Chief of Staff of the 152nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from September 2023 to April 2024. He is now the head of the Kyiv Military Institute.
In April 2024, 27-year-old Major Ihor Zakharov, who had previously served in the 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was sent to replace Siroshtan as battalion commander.
Ihor Zakharov
More than 10 officers of the brigade, of various ranks, either have transferred or want to transfer to another unit due to conflicts with the new chief of staff of the brigade, Ihor Zakharov.
Here is a fragment of Zakharov’s conversation with one of the commanders of one of the rifle battalions of the brigade: “Who will be the commander of the consolidated platoon? If you can’t come round as the battalion commander, then you will be the commander of the consolidated platoon, and your deputy Osadchyi will be the deputy commander of the consolidated platoon. You’re a f**ktard, damn it, I specified that the reports are not registered in the manning report, but they are sent as a scan copy, damn it, and a reference number is put on the scan copy. What are you, stupid? Damn it, you’re a f**ktard in your battalion—you personally, and your Osadchyi, damn it, is just as much of a f**ktard and a jerk. I would spit on him. You are in charge of this consolidated platoon, and your Osadchyi, call him back. I don’t give a f**k, I’ll give you half an hour.”
The chief of staff and deputy commander of the rifle battalion, Major Vitaliy Osadchyi, was eventually demoted to company commander, which corresponds to a lower captain’s rank, by Ihor Zakharov.
Because of his poor moral and psychological state due to constant humiliation, Vitaliy Osadchyi asked the brigade commander to transfer him from this unit. He wrote a report to Maksymiv about the humiliation he had received from Zakharov, the brigade’s chief of staff.
In response, the brigade commander called his deputy demanding personally to himself and other officers. “Demanding behavior towards subordinate service members sometimes requires a louder and more emotional approach to task setting and constant supervision of execution, which can be perceived by soldiers as the personal meticulousness of Major Zakharov towards a particular individual.”
Zakharov also threatened Osadchyi with physical violence in audio messages. Major Vitaliy Osadchyi claims that at the time of these threats, he and Zakharov had never met in person. Major Osadchyi wrote to Major Zakharov about the plans for the notes, which were ready and approved by the brigade commander, but he reported to the chief of staff later than the deadline because he had problems with the internet connection.
Here’s how Zakharov responded in an audio message: “I don’t give a f**k about your internet connection, climb a f**king tree. The task must be completed within the deadline I set, damn it. React to my messages within 10 minutes, damn it. And the reports must be timely, damn it. Today, you will get acquainted with the penalties, damn it. You will receive less financial support since you don’t comply, for f**ck’s sake. And make sure I don’t have to physically intervene. No f**king internet connection. If my message is not responded to in time again, I will show you, and then you will be running errands for me.”
Now Major Vitaliy Osadchyi is serving in another unit. He also contacted the Ministry of Defense hotline with a complaint that he was being humiliated by a senior officer, and the Ministry of Defense sent the complaint back to the 152nd Brigade. Osadchyi also filed complaints with the State Bureau of Investigation, the Military Law Enforcement Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the Prosecutor’s Office. So far, he has not received any answers. In the 152nd brigade, he is on the list of those who left the unit without permission (went AWOL – ed.).
“Citizen Osadchyi, I would not call him a mister. As for his words (Zakharov’s words to Osadchyi — ed.), I do not agree with this. But if we are to evaluate his actions, he does not fulfill his duties adequately… he is a coward and, as an officer, committed an act of going AWOL. The task was to prepare the unit for a combat mission—Osadchyi failed to do this. He submitted a report stating that he was unable to perform his duties due to his mental state. He went on leave for family reasons and did not return from his leave,” says Brigade Commander Yuriy Maksymiv.
Another officer of the brigade, Major Andriy Blokhin, was indeed struck in the face by Ihor Zakharov. Blokhin held the position of senior assistant to the chief of the operational department of the brigade.
“On July 30, Zakharov hit me. He got into the habit of governing, and I had as many years of service as he was of age. Recently, I didn’t arrive on time for the muster, and he started saying inappropriate things to me, trying to humiliate me. That day, I was repairing a vehicle, and he said he didn’t give a f**k and that I should have been there, but I was 30 kilometers away from that location. He was shouting, and everyone at the command post heard it. The next morning, it continued; he took my pistol and led me aside. He hit me in the face, on the right side of my forehead, and I told him I was going to get the injuries documented. I called the Ministry of Defense hotline, reported to the Military Law Enforcement Service, called the police, and the next day, I had the injuries documented. Doctors recommended an MRI and hospitalization; I spent 10 days there, and during that time, I was transferred from the brigade to a reserve battalion,” Blokhin tells Slidstvo.Info.
The incident with the assault of Blokhin occurred at a training ground even before the brigade departed for the combat zone.
After the hospital, the soldier filed a report with the Specialized Defense Prosecutor’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation.
According to information from Slidstvo.Info’s sources in the SBI, on September 4 this year, a criminal case was opened against Ihor Zakharov for beating Blokhin under Article 426, Part 1, “Abuse of power or authority by a military official.” However, SBI investigators have not yet pressed charges against Zakharov.
“The situation was quite banal. A soldier (Major Blokhin — ed.) had left the unit without official leave and then returned. Major Zakharov used physical force against him. I was on leave at the time. When I returned from leave, I did not expect that officer (Major Blokhin — ed.) to file a complaint. He went to the relevant authorities to document his injuries. There were many inquiries. Representatives from law enforcement agencies came, investigated, but found nothing substantial. A young officer arrived. Young, trained, experienced. He saw officers who were not very interested in training, and he reacted accordingly. None of this was outside the bounds of the law. There were nuances regarding superiority. This person is inherently well-mannered. Very demanding in service; perhaps his young age plays a role,” 152nd Brigade Commander Maksymiv explains Major Zakharov’s behavior.
“After Zakharov arrived, about 30 people wanted to leave along with me; Zakharov undermined the combat readiness of the brigade,” says Lieutenant Colonel Valeriy Pereslavtsev, who was the deputy chief of staff of the 152nd Brigade from its inception but now serves in another unit.
Several other officers still serving in the brigade told Slidstvo.Info that Ihor Zakharov often greets them with “well, what’s up, f**kers” instead of “wish you health.”
Ihor Zakharov answered the journalists’ call but said that he had the right to comment on anything only with the permission of his superiors. Slidstvo.info asked Brigade Commander Maksymiv to give Mr. Zakharov permission to talk to journalists, but at the time of publication of this article, no such communication had taken place. The agency is ready to provide Mr. Zakharov with an opportunity to comment at any time.
“HE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SENT THERE”
On November 4, one of the brigade’s rifle battalions was assigned a separate section of the front in the Pokrovsk sector, one and a half kilometers long. The combat order came 5 hours before they were to move to their positions. The battalion’s soldiers had to take up four positions. Before that, they had not fought as a separate unit, but had been attached to another battalion of the 25th Airborne Brigade.
According to one of the officers of this battalion, the soldiers were not ready for such a task, and there was no time to deploy fire support or organize aerial reconnaissance. These units were pulled up, but later.
Three days later, the Russians discovered the positions and attacked them with drones and mortars.
“We had a lot of WIAs, one group was pinned down in a dugout. Nobody dared to pull them out, and no one managed to pick up the WIAs either,” says one of the battalion’s officers.
Eventually, these positions were transferred to another unit and the battalion command thought that was all, but the same unit was again assigned an adjacent section of land. There were no officers who could lead the group in these positions.
“We have four platoon commanders left in the entire battalion. Company commanders are either wounded or partially fit, and platoon commanders are either partially fit or unfit,” explains one of the officers.
The brigade’s chief of staff, Ihor Zakharov, ordered that the group would be led by 59-year-old Major Serhiy Lozovskyi, who had a few months left to serve before retirement.
Two active officers of the brigade, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Slidstvo.Info that Lozovskyi had difficulty handling certain tasks on the computer. He was demoted from the position of chief of the operational department of the brigade to deputy commander of the rifle battalion.
At the beginning of November, due to the shortage of officers in the brigade’s headquarters, Zakharov ordered that Lozovskyi himself would lead the group to the positions.
“We led this group in and immediately upon landing, we encountered the enemy. Most did not return; Lozovskyi is now officially missing in action,” says one of the officers of this rifle battalion.
“He should not have been sent there. He had access to state secrets; he was a staff officer. He couldn’t go there. It was stupid because, as a combat unit, he was not effective, but as a staff worker, he worked well,” the officer concludes.
The State Bureau of Investigation has initiated a case against Zakharov under Article 426, Part 1: “Abuse of power or authority by a military official.”
On November 23 this year, 27-year-old Ihor Zakharov, the chief of staff of the 152nd Separate Jaeger Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
“Why create new brigades if you can add these people to the old brigades, where there are not enough people, but there is a good core that knows how to fight,” several officers of the newly created 152nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ask rhetorically.
“This is just so the leadership can get their shiny new epaulets, while we’ve already lost enough men to fill a battalion—missing and killed. Another battalion is full of unfit soldiers, so in three months, the brigade has effectively become combat ineffective,” says another senior officer still serving in the brigade but looking for a way to transfer out.
“Of course, like all brigades, we suffered losses. We have a certain number of missing in action. At some point, there was a perception that we in the brigade didn’t care about the fate of the soldiers who went missing themselves or their families. But that’s not true. Believe me, I know firsthand what it’s like to go to a soldier’s family and inform them (of the death or disappearance — ed.). I did this myself when I was a regional military commissar; we established a commission and are now dealing with this (with the missing and compensations for families — ed.). I know that all the brigade’s problems are my responsibility,” concludes Colonel Maksymiv.
