Russia Saved Tanks All Year For This Moment—150,000 Troops Close In On Pokrovsk
Russian reinforcements are surging toward Pokrovsk, but so are Ukrainian reinforcements
Key developments:
150,000 Russian troops massing around Pokrovsk
5 Russian brigades redeployed from Sumy front
156th Mechanized Brigade rushing south as reinforcement
Russia’s first major tank-led offensive in months
The Ukrainian army stood up the 156th Infantry Brigade in the spring of 2024. Not long after, the unit converted into a mechanized brigade with additional armored vehicles.
The brigade recruited and trained its thousands of troops through the fall and winter and, this summer, deployed to the front line in Sumy Oblast in northern Ukraine.
Now the 156th Mechanized Brigade is one of the growing number of Ukrainian units rushing south to Donetsk Oblast to meet a mass of Russian troops and tanks poised to strike at the fortress city of Pokrovsk for what Ukrainian drone operator Kriegsforscher described as a “last, final battle.”
As recently as last month, the 156th Mechanized Brigade was helping to hold the line in Sumy alongside other brigades in the new 18th Army Corps. But with the defeat of its infantry-led incursion northeast of Pokrovsk in recent weeks, the Kremlin made a portentous decision.
Rather than give up on Pokrovsk, it doubled down—and surged reinforcements around the city for what’s shaping up to be a powerful, tank-led offensive.
Pokrovsk’s fall would open the path to Ukraine’s last major defensive positions in Donetsk, potentially forcing a strategic withdrawal that could reshape the entire eastern front.
David, there is zero evidence that tanks have been saved all year for this. There is plentiful evidence that Russia stopped most tank assaults because they were always being blown up. In fact, milbologgers have been complaining about tank crews being sent to Storm-Z units to make up numbers. That's hardly a move an army preparing for a modern Blitzkrieg would do. Even Russia.
…that’s going to be putin’s Waterloo