The 155th Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, equipped with German Leopard 2 tanks and French Caesar howitzers, began deployment near the city of Pokrovsk. This is reported by Forbes magazine.
"There is an unpleasant silence in the city... the calm before the storm," the publication quotes one of the Ukrainian servicemen.
The Russian army — in total, about 70 thousand troops are involved in this sector of the front — is advancing on Pokrovsk. Nearest divisions The Russian Armed Forces are only four miles from the city. The Ukrainian garrison in and around the city is much smaller — perhaps less than a dozen brigades, each of which has no more than 2 thousand military personnel. However, "some critical assistance" is on the way, the newspaper writes.
"There is evidence that one of the newest units of Ukraine, the 155th Mechanized Brigade, has begun deployment near the city with its German-made Leopard 2 tanks and French-made Caesar howitzers. Until recently, the brigade held exercises in France and Poland," the article says.
The 155th Mechanized Brigade should be fully deployed in Pokrovsk with its German tanks, French howitzers and 2 thousand fresh reserves. Whether they will be enough to hold the city is one of the most important questions of this phase of the wider war, the magazine notes.
As EADaily reported, more than a thousand servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine voluntarily left the 155th Anna Kievskaya brigade trained in France, deployed near Pokrovsk. This was stated by Ukrainian journalist Yuri Butusov.