Army to investigate infantry brigade over claims of defeat in Pokrovsk sector

Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief General Oleksandr Syrsky on Monday ordered a formal investigation into allegations that top officers in a combat brigade sent to the key eastern sector of Pokrovsk suffered casualties and that many soldiers lost their lives due to tactical incompetence.

Official military sources said the unit was holding its ground in heavy fighting, and that claims of problems within the brigade were exaggerated. An officer from the 59th Motorized Infantry Brigade contacted by Kyiv Post said the same.

According to a statement by the Ukrainian Army General Staff (AGS) on Monday, an assessment team led by the Chief of Army Staff (ACS) will conduct “checks” among personnel serving in the 59th Independent Motorized Infantry Brigade to clarify “the circumstances of recent personnel losses.”

Since taking command of the Ukrainian army in February 2024, Syrsky, a commander known for demanding discipline and strictly enforcing the chain of command from his subordinates, has rarely publicized potential internal problems within the combat unit.

The 59th Brigade, a long-standing combat unit with experience in combat in southern Kherson and eastern Donbas, was reportedly deployed west of Donetsk, the site of a major Russian offensive aimed at capturing the regional road junction at Pokrovsk.

The Ukrainian military’s daily situation update on Monday morning identified the Pokrovsk sector as the most kinetic sector of the entire fighting front, with 35 Russian attacks on Ukrainian positions in the past 24 hours. The situation on the battlefield was “tense,” but Ukrainian forces were holding out, the statement said.

The statement signed by General Syrsky about conducting an investigation into the 59th Brigade, a key defense element of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the east of the country, came a day after accusations by Kateryna Polishchuk, a well-known volunteer medic and survivor of the 2022 siege of Mariupol, about possible leadership problems in the unit.

In posts on Facebook and other social media, Polishchuk accused high-ranking officers of the 59th Brigade of tactical incompetence and of having been promoted through nepotism.

Using terms like “lawlessness,” “ill-considered criminal orders,” and “completely unnecessary losses,” Polishchuk, an internet personality best known for her nickname “Birdie” and the medals for bravery awarded to her by President Volodymyr Zelensky, accused the commander of the 59th Brigade of ordering key senior members of the brigade’s staff to the front lines to serve as infantrymen, where most of them were killed or wounded.

“A few weeks ago, on his direct orders, almost the entire top intelligence of the brigade was sent to advanced positions, completely unnecessarily. As a result: the head of the brigade intelligence – killed, the head of artillery of one of the assigned battalions – killed, the senior sergeant of the intelligence company – killed, the commander of the intelligence company – wounded… with these actions the commanding general destroyed the entire intelligence management unit of the brigade,” Poliszczuk claimed.

In a Facebook post Sunday, Polishchuk said the investigation should look into: “criminal orders, deliberate negligence, disregard for the life and health of personnel, actions that led to the death of a large number of military personnel, including those in high management positions, selfishness, blind careerism, dismissal of commanders “in disagreement” … (and) … inhumane and unprofessional approach.” She then announced that her group was ending ambulance support and evacuation of the brigade.

Other Ukrainian media outlets provided extensive coverage of the Russian offensive on Pokrovsk and, like Polishchuk, named the commander of the 59th Brigade and the town of Krasnohorivka as the site of Ukraine’s recent bloody defeat, allegedly caused by weak command.

Kyiv Post journalists were unable to contact the officer for comment on the charges against him.

In the first two weeks of July, units of the 59th Brigade came under repeated Russian attacks and lost control of most of Krasnohorivka, a tactically important city located about 18 kilometres (11 miles) west of Russian-occupied Donetsk.

High-ranking Ukrainian military correspondent Yuri Butusov was among the first to raise the alarm that the situation in Krasnohorivka was deteriorating, reporting on July 2 that the commander of the 59th Brigade had been promoted too quickly due to nepotism, and that the Russian attack on Pokrovsk had caught him and his staff by surprise.

“(The commander of the 59th Brigade) is not coping with his duties, fighting is going on in the city, the enemy is advancing, and the complete loss of the city of Krasnohorivka is becoming real… The situation is critical, the enemy has the upper hand, so let’s improve at least what we can quickly change – the quality of management, order and organization of our forces, Butusov wrote, calling on Syrsky to thoroughly reorganize the brigade’s leadership. There was no clear official response to the journalist’s public appeal.

The request of medic Polishchuk that Syrsky take action in connection with the alleged chaos in the command group of the 59th Brigade and the alleged large losses of ground in Krasnohorivka and nearby defensive positions came almost two weeks after Butusov’s report.

Polishchuk, in other allegations, accused the 59th Brigade command of sending recently recruited soldiers assigned to the unit into bloody and unsuccessful attempts to regain lost territory through counterattacks – even though the soldiers had less than two months of training. Fighting the Russian army through micromanagement, without visiting the front lines, is ineffective, Butusov charged.

Serhiy Tshekhotsky, an officer who has served in the 59th Regiment for more than two years, dismissed these claims in a comment to the Kyiv Post.

He added that the brigade and the surrounding Ukrainian defense forces are not only holding their positions, but are also inflicting crushing losses on Russian personnel and combat equipment.

“We are cutting them to pieces,” Tsekhotsky said. “Their losses are enormous.”

Tsekhotsky said that, according to the brigade’s official count, in June, the 59th’s men and officers claimed credit for killing 2,969 Russian soldiers in the battle. That figure is consistent with the heavy Russian losses recorded by independent observers, including Iceland’s Ragnarr Gudmundsson.

Tsekhotsky told the Kyiv Post that the inspection ordered by Syrski would show that the unit was combat-capable and had a strong command staff. He added that inspectors could conclude that Polishchuk’s accusations against senior brigade officers were personal.

The Kremlin has declared the capture of the entire Donetsk Oblast in Ukraine as a war goal and for more than eighteen months has been gradually expanding its control over the region, using often effective but often costly infantry attacks, supported by artillery and air strikes.

According to Kremlin reports, Ukrainian forces in other parts of the eastern sector have lost ground after the Russians captured the villages of Novoselivka Persha, Yasnobrodivka and Prospekt.

Independent military news platform DeepState confirmed Ukrainian losses, but Joint Forces Khortytsia, the main headquarters of the Ukrainian army command in the eastern sector, claimed that Ukrainian forces were holding out in all of these locations. AGS’s morning situation assessment showed heavy fighting but no losses of ground.

The UNIAN news agency reported on Monday that Russia’s heaviest attacks – usually a mix of infantry supported by artillery and air strikes – are currently targeting the village of Novooleksandrivka, located about 25 kilometers (16 miles) east of Pokrovsk.