The Reaon Ukraine's New Assault Brigades Have Superior Weaponry, Training

One of the most impressive aspects of Ukraine's recent success around Bakhmut is that they have been largely holding back as many as 20 assault brigades, armed with the latest equipment and beneficiaries of superb training. 

These units - some of whom have appeared briefly at Bakhmut to give them experience - will spearhead the counteroffensive. Their record in the cauldron of fire there as well as the caliber of their weaponry and training suggests they will be fearsome combatants. JL 

Ian Lovett and Nikita Nikolaienko report in the Wall Street Journal:

Kyiv has been holding 20 brigades back from the fighting, training them to break through Russian lines and hold ground taken. The hope in Kyiv is that when its offensive begins, Russian forces will be depleted from their assault on Bakhmut, while tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops will be fresh and well-equipped with Western tanks and other materiel. The troops all carry new American-made M4 rifles, plus thermal sights to help them shoot at night and Glock 17 pistols. These forces offer the best chance to make a difference: “good training, good preparation, good supplies.”

In a valley far from the front lines last week, several men practiced dropping a half-full bottle of water from a small aerial drone, as though it were a grenade. Others fired rifles at targets 100 yards away. A third group set off for a trek through the surrounding hills, which burst with white and yellow flowers.

Almost none of them had military experience before last year. The Ukrainian military is racing to turn civilians into elite soldiers for the cutting edge of a critical summer offensive.

 

Kyiv has been holding some 20 brigades back from the fighting and training them to break through Russian lines and hold any ground taken. The hope in Kyiv is that when its offensive begins, Russian forces will be depleted from their assault on Bakhmut, while tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops will be fresh and well-equipped with Western battle tanks and other materiel.

“We got orders that we have to be ready to go at any moment,” said the commander of the Artan battalion, a special-forces unit of Ukraine’s military intelligence, known as GUR, which is being saved for the offensive.

For some members of the battalion, it will be their first operation.

While U.S. Navy SEALs receive more than two years of training before deployment, Ukrainian special forces don’t have that kind of time. The challenge for the commander, who goes by the call sign Titan, is to get his men ready, even if they have never seen combat.

Over the past year, Artan has slowly grown to 350 men from just 70 last summer. Only 20% of them had military experience before the full-scale invasion began. One was an actor, another a lawyer.

One soldier, a security guard before the war, fought with his local territorial defense and then in another Ukrainian brigade before joining Artan three months ago. He said he didn’t want to spend the war firing out of muddy trenches, and the special forces offered him the best chance to make a difference: “good training, good preparation, good supplies.”

Until last year, Titan said, HUR special-forces units like this one were nearly impossible to join. Now, the entry requirements have been eased as Kyiv has scrambled to bolster its manpower. “You still have to pass a test to show you can put three words together,” he said. There is also a lie-detector test and a physical-fitness qualification.

The battalion took part in several operations last year, including the surprise offensive in the Kharkiv region that retook more than 3,000 square miles of territory.

This year, however, Artan has mostly been training.

The troops are outfitted with some of the best gear Ukraine has been provided: They all carry new American-made M4 rifles, plus thermal sights to help them shoot at night and Glock 17 pistols.

On a typical day of training, they fire 400 shots, with instructors giving personalized instruction for every soldier. In some cases, the men have been entirely retrained after having learned to shoot on AK-47s.

Twice this year, soldiers from Artan have been sent to help stabilize the front lines in Bakhmut, the besieged eastern city that has been at the center of Russia’s offensive.

A platoon commander in Artan who goes by the call sign Pain was sent in January to Bakhmut, where his team was tasked with holding a position in a residential area of the city. He had spent four years in the military before Russia invaded and was paired with inexperienced troops.

In a video viewed by the Journal, he stands inside a house behind another soldier, who points his rifle out the window. They see an enemy fighter. “Fire,” Pain orders.

“What if he’s one of our guys?” the other soldier asks.

“Fire,” Pain orders again. “Fire.”

When the soldier hesitates, Pain shoots his own rifle over the man’s shoulder. Eventually, the other soldier starts to fire as well.

In an interview, Pain said it took him two years to become fully comfortable firing at enemy targets.

“I’m trying to teach soldiers in my platoon that killing the enemy is the same as working as a mechanic,” he said. “It’s our job.”

In March, 62 more men from Artan went to Bakhmut to push Russian troops back from the only road Ukrainian forces used to supply the city.

“It was like hell,” said a 24-year-old former lawyer in the battalion.

For days, he sat in muddy trenches, with Russians less than 50 feet away and only thin tree lines for cover. The fighting began at sunrise and was so intense, he said, that his gun was jamming by midday from constant firing. Sometimes, Ukrainian forces would turn a corner in their own trench network and find Russians were there.

Eventually, the Ukrainians forced the Russians back from the road. The 24-year-old soldier said the arrival of highly trained, well-rested special forces helped boost the spirits of men who had been in the trenches for weeks.

“Our enemy has the advantage in manpower, artillery—everything,” he said. “We have to use our creativity, our skills.”

One soldier from Artan was killed and 27 others wounded in March; 11 of them are now back in action, according to Ttian, the commander, who was part of the Bakhmut operation.

Titan, 42 years old with graying hair and a short, thick build, joined the military in 2017. Even for him, Bakhmut was intense, with men firing up to 1,000 rounds a day.

The deployments helped harden some of his troops for what is to come, he said. “A well-trained soldier is completely different after their first fight.”

Artan also has conducted several sabotage missions across enemy lines this year, Titan said. The battalion continues to grow, and some of the men still haven’t faced combat at all.

In recent days, Titan said, they have been working on capturing different types of positions—fields, buildings, trenches—and coordination between different units. He yawned and then apologized. “It’s normal,” he said. “We had night training last night.”

 

At the shooting range, a dozen men worked on moving in unison. A commander called out “3 o’clock,” then all the soldiers pivoted. One was consistently behind the others.

Titan is hoping the circumstances will help newcomers learn quickly.

“When you’re motivated to do something, you can do it faster,” Titan said. “In the middle of a war, they all realize they could end up on the battlefield soon.”