Ukraine's 110th Mechanized Brigade Survived The Hardest Fights Of The War. Now It's Battling A Whole Russian Tank Division.

Can the brigade slow the 90th Tank Division's advance?

110th Mechanized Brigade photo

The Ukrainian army’s 110th Mechanized Brigade is one of the most hardened brigades in the Ukrainian ground forces. Now it’s deploying along one of the hardest fronts: the sector just south of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.

Starting in early 2023, the 110th Mechanized Brigade defended Avdiivka, just west of Donestk city, against overwhelming odds for 23 grueling months until a temporary blockade of U.S. aid—orchestrated by Russia-friendly Republican lawmakers—starved the brigade of ammunition, forcing it to retreat under fire.

In the months that followed, the 110th Mechanized Brigade endured other difficult fights. In the summer of 2024, hundreds of brigade troopers found themselves surrounded by a much larger Russian force near the town of Prohres, west of Avdiivka. Defying orders, they beat another risky retreat.

This year, the 110th Mechanized Brigade settled into the front line around Velyka Novosilka, 30 miles south of the fortress city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk. The brigade fought a rearguard action as a large Russian force—including the elite 90th Tank Division—slowly nudged Ukrainian defenders to the west toward a similarly named town: Pokrovs’ke.