- Ukrainian troops are falling back west of Huliaipole
- Assault forces (who attack) blame the territorial forces (who defend)
- But the territorials are outgunned and outnumbered by attacking Russian forces
- Reports indicate one assault regiment forcibly transferred some territorials
Ukrainian forces struggling to hold the line west of Huliaipole in southeastern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast are turning on each other. In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, assault troops have forcibly transferred territorial soldiers to their command—and the military ombudsman confirms the problem is real.
The incident reflects a deepening schism in the Ukrainian chain of command. Territorial brigades answer to regional commands. Assault troops report directly to commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi. When resources run short, the assault forces have his ear—and the territorials get blamed for defeats they lacked the means to prevent.
Last week, there were reports that Ukrainian assault forces in the Huliaipole sector had rounded up troops from a nearby territorial brigade and forced them to redeploy toward Huliaipole over the objections of the territorials' NCOs and officers.
Now the Ukrainian military's ombudsman has conceded there are "issues" between the assault troops and territorials in Zaporizhzhia. "We have been dealing with this issue since yesterday," ombudsman Olha Reshetylova told Militaryland on or just before Friday. "The problem arose due to improper communication of orders to servicemen and miscommunication between units."
Why assault and territorial forces clash
The territorials are normally tasked with garrisoning and defending settlements for months or years at a time. The assault troops are, from a doctrinal point of view, the very opposite. They're trained and equipped for fast, violent counterattacks—and they're not expected to defend static positions over the long term.
The territorials and assault troops need each other. The territorials struggle to recapture territory. The assault troops struggle to defend it.
Key facts about the Huliaipole situation:
- 102nd and 106th Territorial Brigades held Huliaipole for months without rotation
- Russian forces had potentially 5x troop advantage
- 108th Territorial Brigade ordered to form combat group under 225th Assault Regiment
- ~20 territorial soldiers remain under assault regiment command as of 10 January
Blame game
When Huliaipole fell last month, Syrskyi himself blamed the 102nd and 106th Territorial Defense Brigades, whose under-supplied survivors had defended Huliaipole against an aggressive Russian brigade with potentially five times as many troops.
"These troops held their positions for a long time and suffered extremely heavy losses over recent months, yet were not rotated to the rear for rest and reconstitution," the pro-Ukraine Conflict Intelligence Team reported. "Holding positions under such conditions eventually became almost impossible, especially when Russian forces intensified their pressure."
Internal tensions escalated as the 102nd and 106th Territorial Brigades, along with adjacent assault units including the 48th Assault Battalion and the 225th Assault Regiment, retreated to the west.
In late December, the Ukrainian 17th Army Corps ordered the 108th Territorial Defense Brigade, holding positions around Mala Tokmachka, 20 km west of Huliaipole, to form a new combat group under the command of the 225th Assault Regiment.
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The 5 January incident
The order "met with strong resistance from the officer and NCO cadre of the 108th Territorial Defense Brigade," observer Thorkill noted, "and the formation of the combat group was continuously postponed to subsequent days." Recall that territorial troops aren't trained or equipped for offensive action like the assault troops are.
The outnumbered assault troops couldn't or wouldn't wait for the 108th Territorial Defense Brigade to ready its troops for transfer to the assault forces. "The impatient command of the 225th Assault Regiment decided to enforce its execution by force," Thorkill reported.
On 5 January, masked assault troops threatened 108th Territorial Defense Brigade soldiers and "extracted" them by truck from their positions, according to Thorkill. 225th Assault Regiment commander Oleh Shyriaev claimed "nobody kidnapped" the territorials. "Nobody threatened them."
Unresolved questions
A few days later, some of the transferred territorials have returned to their home brigade. But around 20 remain under the command of the 225th Assault Regiment. These 20 soldiers are undergoing new training, a military spokesman told Militaryland.
Weirdly, the spokesman insisted the retrained territorials wouldn't become assault troops. "There are no plans to involve them in assault operations." If that's true, why did the 225th Assault Regiment go to such lengths to take command of the territorials?
