Ukraine Gathers Strength But Must Keep Tight — The Tip of Victory Beckons

Despite another night of missiles in Kyiv (most if not all shot down) Ukraine continues to pour scorn on oil refineries in Russia and logistics hubs in Crimea

Ukraine is hitting russia where it hurts: cars queue for hours to fill tanks, and tears fall across the tundra as the poor russians weep at the unfairness of everything: after all, they had agreed to let Ukraine be destroyed, it’s people tortured and killed, but not this! What could be happening! Could it be that the tsar is a bloodthirsty moron with not a clue what to do apart from disappear for days, before mumbling some garbage about winning against Ukraine on all fronts, staring at a piece of paper in his hands…to avoid looking out of the window at the black smoke?

Of course where the russian dictator lurks there are no windows, lest his pale skin meet up with a large calibre bullet. But little does he know his end is being manufactured regardless; that one way or another his oligarchs are gathering as russian history always gathers to overthrow the latest brutal leader.

In Ukraine the plans to form additional new brigades to fight the war is going ahead, as Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi warns russia is preparing to expand the active front by around 160 km, potentially from the Belarusian direction. Syrskyi said reinforcing existing units alone will not be enough to counter a possible new russian offensive.

Belarus remains a mystery. Radio traffic is full of the Kremlin demanding an invasion of Ukraine from Minsk, successful or not — who cares, and Belarus dictator and all-round despicable guy Lukachenko is in trouble, seemingly almost begging to be Zelenskiy’s bestie, as well as apologising for any “nasty words” said. He is no friend of the Ukrainian president however, and no pal of his people. The Kalinoūski brigade, of Belarus soldiers fighting for Ukraine was upped to regiment status a couple years ago, so keen are many from Belarus to fight for Ukraine as a step to getting rid of their dictator. But the Belarus border fortifications are still being upgraded, despite Lukachenko disabling relay towers for russian drones into Ukraine, as per Zelenskiy’s polite request — otherwise they’d have blown them up.

The Kalinoūski regiment’s battle honours are extensive. As a brigade they fought all across Ukraine, showing real solidarity, motivation and battlefield expertise.

[embed]*The Kastus Kalinoŭski Regiment - official site *The official page of the Kastus Kalinowsky Regiment - a military formation in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which consists of Belarusian volunteers kalinouski.org

Armed Forces of Ukraine brigades vary by type and by wartime situation, but a typical Ukrainian army brigade is roughly 3,000–5,000 personnel. Brigades can be smaller or larger depending on their mission, equipment, losses, and whether they are fully staffed.

A Ukrainian mechanized brigade (the most common frontline type) is generally composed of brigade headquarters, intelligence, comms, logistic units, several battalions — usually 3–4 mechanized infantry battalions, if I take my cherished 47th machanized brigade as an example.

Here’s the 47th lay-out: ✓ Headquarters & Headquarters Company ✓ 1st Mechanized Infantry Battalion (M2 Bradley) ✓ Aerial Reconnaissance Unit: "God’s Cause" ✓ 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion ✓ Attack Drone Unit: "Ignis Vindicta" ✓ 3rd Mechanized Infantry Battalion ✓ 47th Tank Battalion (the 2 companies of m55s were switched with Leopard 2, which in turn were replaced by the M1 Abrams) ✓ 25th Separate Assault Battalion ✓ Aerial Reconnaissance Unit "Search and Destroy" ✓ 26th Separate Rifle Battalion ✓ Field Artillery Regiment ✓ Target Acquisition Battery ✓ Observer Battery ✓ 1st Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion (M109 howitzer) ✓ 2nd Artillery Battalion (122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)) ✓ Rocket Artillery Battalion (BM-21 Grad)[53] ✓ Anti-Tank Artillery Battalion (Mixed) ✓ Anti-Aircraft Missile Defense Battalion ✓ Unmanned Systems Battalion "Strike Drone Company" ✓ Reconnaissance Company ✓ Combat Engineer Battalion ✓ Maintenance Battalion ✓ Logistics Battalion ✓ Signal Company ✓ Radar Company ✓ Medical Company ✓ Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense Company ✓ Brigade Band

Yuliia Shevchenko (June 18, 1999 – July 31, 2023) was a Ukrainian anti corruption civic activist, poet, and lieutenant in the 47th Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. She made the ultimate sacrifice, falling in action in Orikhi.

Generally, each brigade is equipped with armored vehicles such as infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), armored personnel carriers, and trucks.

A tank battalion is often around 30–40 tanks (varies), and provides armored firepower and breakthrough capability, though this more and more, monthly is being taken over by UAV drone warfare, or indeed land or water. Artillery groups are still valid, Including self-propelled howitzers, rocket systems, mortars, and fire-support units, and are still valid but increasingly are also replaced by drones, which are also involved in reconnaissance and targeting.

Air defense units are present in the structure, as are engineer units and logistics, including medical support and repair work.

Electronic warfare units are increasing in number and value. A simplified structure looks like:

Brigade (~3,000–5,000 troops) → Battalions (~500–800 troops each) → Companies (~100–200 troops) → Platoons (~30–50 troops) → Squads (~8–12 troops)

Ukraine also has specialized brigades:

✓ Mechanized brigades — heavier on armour

✓ Air Assault brigades — more infantry-focused and mobile

✓ Marine brigades

✓ Artillery brigades

✓ Territorial Defence brigades

✓ National Guard brigades

In practice, a Ukrainian brigade fighting on the front line may not match its official table of organization because of combat losses, reinforcements, attached units, and equipment availability.

Drone units exist at two levels: inside ordinary brigades and as separate formations under the newer Unmanned Systems Forces (USF).

A normal mechanized, assault, airborne, or territorial brigade usually has its own UAV capability. These are part of the brigade’s structure.

Typically:

∆ Reconnaissance drones

∆ FPV strike teams

∆ Electronic warfare / counter-drone elements

They are essentially the brigade’s “eyes and precision weapons.” A battalion commander may have drone teams supporting his sector, while the brigade intelligence/fire-support chain coordinates larger effects.

Ukraine has also created dedicated drone formations under the Unmanned Systems Forces, a separate command structure intended to centralise drone warfare expertise and larger-scale operations.

These units include things like:

∆ Long-range strike drone units

∆ Specialized FPV assault units

∆ Deep reconnaissance/strike formations

Unmanned Systems Forces receives higher-level tasks, conducts operations that may affect multiple brigades, hit deeper targets and develops tactics & training.

Starting a whole new brigade from scratch is a monumental undertaking — as the above is designed to show. I understand Commander-in-Chief’s rationale, that existing brigades cannot be “stretched” constantly, and that it is imperative to match the enemy’s increase, but it remains highly risky, in a very emotional way… for me personally.

Within each brigade there really must be an international battalion. These ought to be further narrowed down, to for example a Bolivàr battalion comprising Latin Americans, a battalion based around Brazilians, a Nordic battalion or Company, and English-speaking ones, and included here, a Gunn Highlanders squad — an air defence team I am desperately trying to get off the ground.

I just think that dedicated international battalions or companies might be brought back within each brigade. Currently international fighters are embedded in various brigades. Azov’s 3rd battalion is a rarity, considering it is an international battalion — still think that is the way forward, not foreigners sprinkled into different brigades. Ukraine needs these foreign fighters, and though I understand the disbanding of the International Legion, international fighters still need formal structures set in place that can maximise the strengths and usage.

According to the Babel, the commander of Ukraine’s 425th Separate Assault Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Yurii Harkavyi, has been suspended from duty amid an investigation into alleged violations of soldiers' rights. This is what we do not want to see and hear about in June 2026.

The assault unit, better known as Skelia, which has reportedly suffered higher-than-average battlefield losses, came under scrutiny this week after an investigation by Ukrainian news outlet Babel published on June 23 highlighted abuse within the unit, with at least 26 noncombat deaths among recruits.

The day after the investigation was published, Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation said that it launched a pre-trial investigation into the Skelia regiment. The agency said it is verifying the allegations cited in the report and examining whether military officials exceeded their authority and official powers under martial law, “resulting in serious consequences.” This time it cannot be just brushed under the carpet: there is an incredibly brutal war going on, and the daily situation is tough enough at all times. There have been a few incidents, some happening to foreigners, and others by foreigners (a horrendous reign by a certain Brazilian commander springs to mind)

Unit-based abuses in the army, sometimes leading to noncombat deaths in areas far from the front cannot occur as Ukraine continues to face a deepening manpower crisis, struggling to replenish units battered by heavy battles.

Skelia is one of Ukraine’s largest assault formations, with more than 10,000 personnel. Expanded as part of an effort by Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi to build assault brigades, the regiment receives a large share of newly mobilised recruits and is regularly assigned high-risk assault operations.

According to the Babel investigation, at least 26 service members died between late 2025 and spring 2026, many shortly after mobilisation and training. That the brigade was plagued by inadequate medical care, coercion, and physical abuse was something even I heard.

This is the extreme; but it is another reason I am totally against the establishment of absolutely new brigades, with no heritage, battle honours or traditions to upheld. Reviving old brigades is a better format and doable — even if the Poles object by screaming blue murder in a russian kind of way.

Somewhere in a bunker the tsar has asked the russian military to step up efforts to defend russia. The video clips of blubbering russians, crying to the camera about what a tough time they are having is particularly appalling. They may, or may not be a minority, but they are just so dislikeable.

Ex-Polish PM and all-round racist, bore and pathetic creature Jarislaw Kaczynski is sending a Ukrainian award he received back to Ukraine, “in sympathy” with his president who started this nonsense by demanding the Polish Order of the White Eagle award back from Zelenskiy.

source: found on bluesky.

Kaczynski, the most famous and influential politician in Poland, is an interesting character. He once told the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, "not to believe in the myth of Poland as an anti-Semitic, homophobic and xenophobic country,” but characterised the LGBT rights movement as a foreign import that threatens the Polish nation. He also stated that everyone in Poland must recognize Christianity and that questioning the Catholic Church in Poland is unpatriotic, stating the entire LGBT movement “actually threaten our identity, our nation, its continuation and therefore the Polish state."

Not that he would know: he has never had a wife or consort, lived with his mother until her death, as did his twin brother until his death in a plane crash while president of Poland.

Poland looks more and more like Russia in their attitude towards Ukraine. Nothing justifies their sneaky dual politics. Nothing. And new Hungarian PM Peter Magyar can join them on a train to the Kremlin if they should like. His stalling of Ukraine’s accession to the EU, troubling as it is, should not go uncommented by the EU. Is the European Commission trying to avoid being too heavy-handed? There is a war on. Any measure designed to make Ukraine suffer is siding with the enemy. Is it too difficult for any European politicians to say? Let it sow discord. Sometimes not everything needs to be be buried. An often kind of sometimes.

The russian enemy continue to do everything they can to make Ukraine look like terrorists. The latest is russian police arresting civilians they claim have had bombs planted on them, similar to a practice russia has actually carried out in Ukraine. Surely russian viewers of the news can see what a hoax that is? Surely?

Russian foreign minister Lavrov continues to whine about russia being a victim, and talks of not being “cheated” in any future peace talks that a bland, lying Putin keeps pretending he wants, but based on alternatively the “Istanbul 2022" or “Anchorage” formats, both of which he says were accepted by the Ukrainians.

source: Social media.

It does not matter what Ukraine accepts or not if russia just turns around and goes home. Considering the amount of oil refineries being hit by Ukrainian drones and missiles, he might want to look at that as an option.

source from Russia: Not a Monty Python sketch — just new russian defence at work…really.

At the Kinburn Spit the battles continue. This long peninsula, geographically part of Crimes but in the Mykolaïv Oblast is the first step: the re-taking of the Crimes has begun. Hopefully the Ukrainian army can keep it’s instincts in check here, the approach must be slow, methodological, and not a costly invasion. The russians can be throttled out. by

sources: Medias: a beautiful part of the world.

The Kinburn Spit has been fought over several times because it sits at a strategically important point between the Black Sea and the river approaches to places like Ochakiv and Kherson.

The Ottoman Empire and russian Empire fought over the fortress of Kinburn during their wider struggle for control of the Black Sea. Russia captured and held Kinburn, strengthening its position against Ottoman influence in the region, and about twenty years later in the Battle of Kinburn (1787) , Ottoman forces attacked the russian fortress at Kinburn. The Ottomans landed thousands of troops but were defeated after fighting around the fortifications.

In 1855 an Anglo-French force attacked russian forts on the spit, the French using ironclad warships against traditional coastal defenses. russian fortress surrendered after a bombardment on 17 October 1855 lasting about 3 hours.

source: bsky — Holding Kinburn will help control the export of Ukraine grain, which has been suffering.

Is Putin finished? The russian scourge are at their weeping stage, but suddenly and unexpectedly, criticism of the tsar himself is actually appearing online — everywhere, except the official app all are supposed to be using; MAX, of course.

It will be the Chinese who will first hint, almost unheard, that he needs to be taken care of, to a select few in the Kremlin who will have at first thought they had misheard, at a conference or meeting of a trade delegation. The whispers will grow louder. They are already loud enough.

The tsar himself is embalmed in false calmness by the utterances of his cabal, but has he glanced out yonder, further than his immediate team of squawking parrots? For there are many disgruntled voices at petrol stations and supermarket stations from Vladivostok to the Volga.

“Your time is up, Vladimir Vladimirovich!” they seem to be all saying, and the dictator knows it. Everyone in the Kremlin knows it, but none dare say it out loud yet, but they can hear it.