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5th Tank Brigade troopers in training. Ukrainian army photo Twenty-two months into Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, the Ukrainian army finally is forming a new tank brigade. Technically, the 5th Tank Brigade stood up in 2016. But for six years, it existed mostly on paper. When Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February 2022, the Ukrainian army finally began filling the brigade’s battalions with people and equipment. It didn’t happen fast. As the fighting escalated and Ukraine’s losses piled up, the general staff in Kyiv prioritized existing brigades for new recruits and equipment. Officially, the 5th Tank Brigade spent 2022 in garrison in Kryvyi Rih in southern Ukraine. In reality, the brigade still barely existed. That finally has changed. We’ve seen the first official photos of 5th Tank Brigade troopers in training. We know the photos are recent because, in them, there’s snow on the ground. The photos reveal the 5th Tank Brigade soldiers are well-equipped with winter uniforms and camouflage and carry AK-pattern assault rifles rather than the American-designed M-16s that equip some newer brigades such as the 47th Mechanized. What the recent photos don’t reveal … are any tanks. Last year, there were rumors the 5th Tank Brigade would get ex-Polish T-72M1 tanks and ex-Dutch YPR-765 armored personnel carriers. It’s not clear that still is the plan in 2023. While the Ukrainian army has hundreds of restored and donated T-72s it could assign to new units, including the 5th Tank Brigade, it also has received 31 M-1A1 tanks from the United States—and is in the process of getting nearly 200 Leopard 1A5 tanks from a German-Dutch-Danish consortium. The M-1s and Leopard 1s together could equip six or seven battalions. A Ukrainian mechanized brigade usually has one tank battalion with around 30 tanks; a Ukrainian tank brigade might…

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Filed under: News - @ December 3, 2023 7:54 pm