28th Mechanized Brigade

The 28th Mechanized Brigade was raised and based in the Black Sea port of Odesa. For most of the war it has fought in and around the cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson. Probably no other unit in the AFU has more experience on the ground, in the southern sector, where most analysts are predicting the Ukrainian counteroffensive will take place.

At the start of the war with Russia in 2022, the 28th was already fairly combat-experienced formation, with many of its soldiers being veterans of bitter defensive battles in 2014-15 against the regular Russian army in Donbas. In late February 2022 the brigade was initially assigned to defend Odesa from a possible Russian amphibious assault but, the unexpected rapid advances by Kremlin forces out of Crimea, led to an AFU high command decision to throw the 28th into Mykolaiv as a blocking force, where ultimately Ukrainian defenses held. The brigade commander was killed in fighting in July.

The brigade has served effectively as the western cornerstone of the Ukrainian army line on the southern front since then and it was a lead element in the Ukrainian liberation of Kherson in November.