New Commander Sends Officers of 125th Brigade to the Front

The newly appointed commander of the 125th Heavy Mechanized Brigade of the 3rd Army Corps, Volodymyr Fokin, has outlined plans to reform the unit and improve its combat capability in a speech published on social media.

Fokin said he could not ignore the serious challenges the brigade had faced prior to his appointment, emphasizing the responsibility commanders bear for the lives of their personnel.

“I could not stand aside from the terrible events that befell our unit in the past. Commanders are responsible for the lives of their people and must understand the cost of wrong decisions,” he said.

According to Fokin, immediately after assuming command in October, he initiated an assessment of the brigade’s officer corps, giving officers the opportunity to demonstrate their professional competence.

“The results were mixed,” the brigade commander said. “Some officers demonstrated a high level of training and responsibility. However, others treated their service carelessly, showed little desire to improve, and failed to properly fulfill their duties.”

Creation of Officer Patrols

Fokin said he has decided to establish so-called “officer patrols” and deploy officers who had treated their service carelessly to the Kupyansk area, where additional reinforcements are needed. According to him, the officers were given an opportunity to prove themselves under combat conditions.

The move follows a recent appeal by Andrii Biletskyi to replace “paper generals” with capable younger officers and to raise morale by promoting leaders with combat experience who are respected by rank-and-file soldiers.

Background

In late September, soldiers from the brigade’s repair battalion publicly announced their intention to leave their posts en masse after commanders sought to transfer them to an assault unit. Following public backlash, the order was canceled. However, several weeks later, the soldiers again stated they were being sent to the Kupyansk district of Kharkiv region.

The brigade also faced criticism from relatives of servicemen reported missing after missions near Poltavka and Olhivske in the Zaporizhia direction. At the time, the 125th Brigade said the soldiers involved had been subordinated to another military formation.

According to Fokin, the 125th Brigade is the first unit under the command of the 3rd Army Corps to implement such changes, with similar reforms expected to follow in other brigades.