- \n
- All three are equipped with T-72 variants, mainly\u00a0T-72AVs<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and uparmored\u00a0T-72Bs<\/a><\/strong> in various configurations, along with one T-84\u00a0Oplot<\/strong><\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The Battalions\u2019 callsigns<\/strong>, \u201cAlkut<\/a>\u201d, \u201cArnaut<\/a>\u201d<\/strong> and \u201cUdar<\/a>\u201d<\/strong>, are used more frequently than the numbers, but the correlation between the two could not be determined.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The Anti-Aircraft Platoons<\/strong> have been seen employing 9K38 Iglas<\/strong>, FIM-92 Stingers<\/strong><\/a> and Mistral MANPADS<\/strong><\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Specific information was found on Battalion Alkut being involved<\/a> in the opening of the Kharkiv counteroffensive, specifically near Bairak<\/strong><\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Battalion Arnaut was spotted<\/a> in the southern front<\/strong> during the same period, so it likely did not take part in Kharkiv maneuvers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\nThe Brigade also has one\u00a0Mechanized Battalion<\/strong>, referred to with the callsign\u00a0\u201cFrank<\/a>\u201d<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- The Battalion is mostly equipped with BMP-1s<\/strong><\/a>, though they do not frequently appear<\/a> on the Brigade's social media. Thus, this element might be at a low combat strength.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n1st Rifle Battalion<\/strong> is an infantry element of the Brigade, however no further details are currently available.
2nd Infantry Battalion<\/strong>, callsign\u00a0\u201cJoker<\/a>\u201d<\/strong>, seems to have been added<\/a> to the Brigade following the full scale invasion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n- \n
- Its equipment could not be determined but it's likely to be light utility vehicles for transportation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- This Battalion has possibly been deployed in a task-organized group<\/a> with, or in the vicinity of, Tank Battalion \u201cUdar\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n36th Separate Rifle Battalion<\/a> \u201cSteppe Wolves\u201d<\/strong>, originally belonging<\/a> to the 61st Mechanized Brigade, seems to have been attached<\/a> to 3rd Tank Brigade for the past several months due to geographical vicinity with other 3rd OTBr elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- The employment of a custom-made pickup-mounted MLRS nicknamed \u201cSoroka\u201d<\/a> in a specific Platoon has been noted, along with mortars<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\nThe Artillery Group<\/strong> is equipped as close to Ukrainian standard as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- 1st Battalion<\/strong> uses\u00a02S1 Gvozdikas<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(122mm).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 2nd battalion<\/strong> has\u00a02S3 Akatsiyas<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(152mm).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 30th Rocket Artillery Battalion<\/a><\/strong> has recently been seen with BM-21 Grad<\/a><\/strong> MLRS, though older material shows Bastion-01<\/a><\/strong> vehicles<\/a>. It is possible that these were moved to a different unit since then (possibly 3rd Assault Brigade).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The Brigade's Anti-Tank Artillery Battalion <\/strong>has employed FGM-148 Javelins<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The BUAR<\/strong> (Headquarters and Target Acquisition Battery) UAV Group of the Brigade seems to be focused on artillery correction and grenade drops<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\nThe\u00a0Anti-Aircraft Defense Battalion\u00a0possibly only has\u00a0ZU-23<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0AAA guns and MANPADS as no self-propelled missile systems were seen in use by 3rd Tank Brigade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\u00a0Engineer Battalion, among other vehicles, uses\u00a0BAT-2<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0tracklayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Maintenance<\/strong> (Repair & Restoration) Battalion<\/strong> has been interviewed by the press in several occasions, showing BREM-1s<\/strong><\/a> as their main armored recovery vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other elements include a Sniper Platoon, the Recon Company and the CBRN Company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\nOther Information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- The Brigade has taken part in task-organized\u00a0joint training<\/a> with 22nd Separate Special Purpose Battalion\u00a0(Separate Presidential Brigade) in multiple occasions. It would not be surprising to see these two units deployed together.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- A\u00a0Border Guard unit<\/a>\u00a0with the\u00a0code 9951<\/a>\u00a0seems to have operated alongside 3 OTBr in a few occasions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\nORBAT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/3rd-Tank-Orbat-CURRENT-2.svg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","post_excerpt":"","post_author":"3494","post_date":"2024-03-03 19:44:28","post_date_gmt":"2024-03-03 18:44:28","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"order-of-battle-deep-dive-3rd-tank-brigade","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-07-04 21:09:40","post_modified_gmt":"2024-07-04 20:09:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/?p=27854","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"3","comments":[{"comment_ID":"14299","comment_post_ID":"27854","comment_author":"Coerenza","comment_author_email":"baykanur@gmail.com","comment_author_url":"","comment_author_IP":"84.220.15.138","comment_date":"2024-03-04 22:46:47","comment_date_gmt":"2024-03-04 21:46:47","comment_content":"Thanks","comment_karma":"0","comment_approved":"1","comment_agent":"Mozilla\/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; K) AppleWebKit\/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome\/122.0.0.0 Mobile Safari\/537.36","comment_type":"comment","comment_parent":"14297","user_id":"0","pod_item_id":"14299"},{"comment_ID":"14297","comment_post_ID":"27854","comment_author":"Miles_Ignigena","comment_author_email":"Miles_Ignigena@web.de","comment_author_url":"","comment_author_IP":"149.224.91.80","comment_date":"2024-03-04 19:09:31","comment_date_gmt":"2024-03-04 18:09:31","comment_content":"Yes. This is the 3rd Tank (Armored) Brigade and you mean the 3rd Assault Brigade.","comment_karma":"0","comment_approved":"1","comment_agent":"Mozilla\/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:123.0) Gecko\/20100101 Firefox\/123.0","comment_type":"comment","comment_parent":"14296","user_id":"0","pod_item_id":"14297"},{"comment_ID":"14296","comment_post_ID":"27854","comment_author":"Coerenza","comment_author_email":"baykanur@gmail.com","comment_author_url":"","comment_author_IP":"84.220.15.138","comment_date":"2024-03-04 17:03:34","comment_date_gmt":"2024-03-04 16:03:34","comment_content":"The brigade you described is different from the 3rd Azov Brigade they were deployed to protect the retreat from Avdiivka, right?","comment_karma":"0","comment_approved":"1","comment_agent":"Mozilla\/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; K) AppleWebKit\/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome\/122.0.0.0 Mobile Safari\/537.36","comment_type":"comment","comment_parent":"0","user_id":"0","pod_item_id":"14296"}],"_thumbnail_id":["29015","1","2024-03-03 19:41:09","2024-03-03 18:41:09","","news_3tank_orbat","","inherit","open","closed","","news_3tank_orbat","","","2024-03-03 19:41:09","2024-03-03 18:41:09","","27854","https:\/\/militaryland.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/news_3tank_orbat.webp","0","attachment","image\/webp","0","29015"],"category":[{"term_id":"3","name":"\u041d\u043e\u0432\u0438\u043d\u0438","slug":"news","term_group":"0","term_taxonomy_id":"3","taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":"0","count":"1063","object_id":"85345","term_order":"0","pod_item_id":"3"}],"post_tag":false,"post_format":false,"id":27854},{"ID":56751,"post_title":"3rd Tank Brigade Reformed as Heavy Mechanized Unit","post_content":"\nThe 3rd Tank \u201cIron\u201d Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces has announced via its social media channels<\/a> that it has been reformed into a heavy mechanized brigade. This change follows the recent transformation of the 1st Tank Brigade into a heavy mechanized brigade, as first reported by MilitaryLand<\/a> on July 8, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/518104125-400x400.jpg\")
<\/a>the official announcement by now 3rd Heavy Mechanized Brigade<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n With this development, only one tank brigade remains within the Ukrainian Ground Forces \u2013 the 4th Tank Brigade<\/a>. However, according to our sources, its transformation into a heavy mechanized brigade is already underway, despite no official announcement yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As discussed in our earlier article<\/a> about the 1st Tank Brigade, this shift is a logical move. Tank brigades have never operated as full brigade-level formations, and there is a persistent shortage of tanks to equip them completely.<\/p>\n","post_excerpt":"","post_author":"1","post_date":"2025-07-18 08:28:31","post_date_gmt":"2025-07-18 06:28:31","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"3rd-tank-brigade-reformed-as-heavy-mechanized-unit","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-08-09 22:43:03","post_modified_gmt":"2025-08-09 20:43:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/?p=56751","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","comments":false,"_thumbnail_id":["56752","1","2025-07-18 08:13:13","2025-07-18 06:13:13","","news_3tank_heavymech","","inherit","open","closed","","news_3tank_heavymech","","","2025-07-18 08:13:13","2025-07-18 06:13:13","","56751","https:\/\/militaryland.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/news_3tank_heavymech.webp","0","attachment","image\/webp","0","56752"],"category":[{"term_id":"3","name":"\u041d\u043e\u0432\u0438\u043d\u0438","slug":"news","term_group":"0","term_taxonomy_id":"3","taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":"0","count":"1063","object_id":"85345","term_order":"0","pod_item_id":"3"},{"term_id":"4","name":"\u041e\u0434\u0438\u043d\u0438\u0446\u0456","slug":"units","term_group":"0","term_taxonomy_id":"4","taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":"0","count":"391","object_id":"85393","term_order":"0","pod_item_id":"4"}],"post_tag":[{"term_id":"1142","name":"\u0410\u0440\u043c\u0456\u044f","slug":"army","term_group":"0","term_taxonomy_id":"1142","taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":"0","count":"298","object_id":"85345","term_order":"0","pod_item_id":"1142"}],"post_format":false,"id":56751},{"ID":59897,"post_title":"Combat-Proven Tank Battalion of 3rd Heavy Brigade Disbanded","post_content":"\n
The First Tank Battalion of the 3rd Heavy Mechanized Brigade has been disbanded. According to Serhiy Ponomarenko, a former serviceman of the brigade and Hero of Ukraine, this unit was the brigade\u2019s most capable, with many of its crews serving continuously since 2022. The disbandment was not connected to the brigade\u2019s transformation from a tank unit into a heavy mechanized formation, but rather stemmed from internal conflicts within the brigade itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Preceded<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
According to the veteran, in an interview with Espreso.tv<\/a>, after the appointment of a new brigade commander, he brought in a close associate as his deputy\u2014an officer who has committed physical abuse. \u201cIn my view, it\u2019s horrifying,\u201d<\/em> Ponomarenko said. \u201cNo officer should be allowed to beat personnel and boast about it. He has video recordings on his personal phone showing soldiers being thrown into pits, locked in cages, and proudly talks about having a whip for beatings. To me, that\u2019s something beyond reality in our current situation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA commander should lead by example. But here, he hides in a bunker, afraid to come out, and makes decisions under the influence of a man who beats soldiers. This isn\u2019t an army \u2014 it\u2019s a farce,\u201d<\/em> he said with frustration in an interview. Ponomarenko called on the country\u2019s leadership to step in. He believes that if no action is taken, many soldiers will start leaving the unit voluntarily, because \u201cno one will go into battle under commanders like these.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, Ponomarenko warned of another looming threat \u2014 the preparation of an order to disband the 1st Tank Battalion, which he describes as the most combat-capable and well-coordinated unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFifty percent of the personnel in the 1st Tank Battalion have been serving since early 2022. These are the soldiers who have stood by me through nearly the entire war, from the very first days of the full-scale invasion until now. Well-coordinated crews and a battle-hardened, tightly knit team are about to be broken up to reinforce battalions that are better at showing off. I don\u2019t know\u2014maybe they bring gifts or something\u2014but a much less prepared and equipped battalion remains, while a highly trained and well-organized battalion is being dismantled,\u201d<\/em> Ponomarenko stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He later confirmed on social media that the battalion had been disbanded, and no investigation has been launched by officials into the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About the commander<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Since 2021, the brigade was led by Colonel Roman Sheremet, who graduated Military Institute of Tank Troops in Kharkiv. He served in the 1st Tank Brigade (today 1st Heavy Mechanized Brigade<\/a>), and progressed from a lieutenant to battalion commander and to head of the command post. He was replaced in June 2025 by Ivan Lysenko, who is the current commander of 3rd Heavy Mechanized Brigade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/12551-1024x678.webp\")
Ivan Lysenko (on the left) during an award ceremony, July 2025<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n Source:<\/strong> interview with Serhiy on Espreso.tv<\/a>, Serhiy Ponoramenko on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n","post_excerpt":"","post_author":"1","post_date":"2025-08-12 20:22:14","post_date_gmt":"2025-08-12 18:22:14","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"combat-proven-tank-battalion-of-3rd-heavy-brigade-disbanded","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-08-12 20:22:15","post_modified_gmt":"2025-08-12 18:22:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/?p=59897","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","comments":[{"comment_ID":"15584","comment_post_ID":"59897","comment_author":"Miles_Ignigena","comment_author_email":"Miles_Ignigena@web.de","comment_author_url":"","comment_author_IP":"2a04:4540:6b0c:2e00:2cf4:5783:d1d3:34c0","comment_date":"2025-08-13 09:19:59","comment_date_gmt":"2025-08-13 07:19:59","comment_content":"He probably don't know, because nobody told him.","comment_karma":"0","comment_approved":"1","comment_agent":"Mozilla\/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:141.0) Gecko\/20100101 Firefox\/141.0","comment_type":"comment","comment_parent":"15583","user_id":"3040","pod_item_id":"15584"},{"comment_ID":"15583","comment_post_ID":"59897","comment_author":"Kudzu","comment_author_email":"pest.away@yahoo.com","comment_author_url":"","comment_author_IP":"98.206.190.208","comment_date":"2025-08-13 05:19:39","comment_date_gmt":"2025-08-13 03:19:39","comment_content":"What is the matter with Zelensky for allowing abuse of good soldiers by incompetent new commanders?","comment_karma":"0","comment_approved":"1","comment_agent":"Mozilla\/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; K) AppleWebKit\/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome\/139.0.0.0 Mobile Safari\/537.36","comment_type":"comment","comment_parent":"0","user_id":"0","pod_item_id":"15583"}],"_thumbnail_id":["59920","1","2025-08-07 22:29:35","2025-08-07 20:29:35","","news_3tank_abuse","","inherit","open","closed","","news_3tank_abuse","","","2025-08-07 22:29:35","2025-08-07 20:29:35","","59897","https:\/\/militaryland.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/news_3tank_abuse.webp","0","attachment","image\/webp","0","59920"],"category":[{"term_id":"3","name":"\u041d\u043e\u0432\u0438\u043d\u0438","slug":"news","term_group":"0","term_taxonomy_id":"3","taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":"0","count":"1063","object_id":"85345","term_order":"0","pod_item_id":"3"},{"term_id":"4","name":"\u041e\u0434\u0438\u043d\u0438\u0446\u0456","slug":"units","term_group":"0","term_taxonomy_id":"4","taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":"0","count":"391","object_id":"85393","term_order":"0","pod_item_id":"4"}],"post_tag":false,"post_format":false,"id":59897}],"unit_equipment_previous":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit\/11900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/unit"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit\/11900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85181,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit\/11900\/revisions\/85181"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit\/11750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"unit_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/militaryland.net\/ua\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit_tag?post=11900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- A\u00a0Border Guard unit<\/a>\u00a0with the\u00a0code 9951<\/a>\u00a0seems to have operated alongside 3 OTBr in a few occasions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
- 2nd battalion<\/strong> has\u00a02S3 Akatsiyas<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(152mm).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 1st Battalion<\/strong> uses\u00a02S1 Gvozdikas<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(122mm).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The employment of a custom-made pickup-mounted MLRS nicknamed \u201cSoroka\u201d<\/a> in a specific Platoon has been noted, along with mortars<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
- The Battalions\u2019 callsigns<\/strong>, \u201cAlkut<\/a>\u201d, \u201cArnaut<\/a>\u201d<\/strong> and \u201cUdar<\/a>\u201d<\/strong>, are used more frequently than the numbers, but the correlation between the two could not be determined.<\/li>\n\n\n\n